


A story about Ice, Dragon Fire, and Belief

by LeDiz



Series: The 48: Dreamworks [3]
Category: Dragons: Riders of Berk (Cartoon), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Astrid is protective, Dragons are smarter than vikings, Family, Friendship, Gen, Hiccup and Jack brotp, Hiccup is a bit too trusting but it's okay in this case, Jack and North just have a very simple and complicated relationship, Jokul Frosti and Odin are Viking myths too, because they're very simple and complicated myths
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-07-22 03:07:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7417204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeDiz/pseuds/LeDiz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While trying to cheer up Jack, North screwed up. Now they're stuck in a strange world where Vikings are still around, dragons exist, they can be seen, and yet no one knows who they are.</p>
<p>Or</p>
<p>Hiccup finds two strangers on the ice and decides to take them to Berk despite everything that happened with Heather, the Outcasts still being a problem, and everything else that makes such a thing a bad idea. Astrid is unimpressed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Prologue, in which North screws up

It started, as so many things did, with Jack.

It sounded like an unfair statement, when North thought about it later, but it was true nonetheless. So many things in their lives these days started and ended with Jack Frost’s intervention. The boy was a catalyst for them all, shocking them out of the damaging routines they had allowed themselves to fall into.

It was harder to break Jack out of his own.

“Jack?”

The boy flinched away from the desk, wrapping both hands around his staff and adopting what he probably thought was an innocent expression. “I wasn’t touching anything.”

North frowned at the defensive behaviour, then looked at the desk. It was his writing desk, where he had kept the naughty and nice lists for centuries. Once, it had been filled with paper at all times. Now, it was home to just two computer tablets, one red and one green. Jack had been staring at the red.

“Is hard to read these machines when you do not touch,” North noted, allowing the door to swing shut behind him. He winced when Jack’s eyes watched it close, and had to keep himself from doing it again as they then shot back watch him, instead. He tried to smile instead, and look welcoming as he moved toward the desk. “You know what these are?”

Jack didn’t say anything, still eyeing him warily, and North slowly reached out to take his elbow and tug him forward again.

“Is naughty and nice list. Automatically updates with each event – I do not even need to check anymore!” he said, then grinned. “I do, but this is not point.”

“How many times?” Jack asked dryly, and North laughed.

“This answer you know! But that is why I have reason to come in here; what is yours? You wish to see lists?”

Jack narrowed his eyes, gauging the response, and finally relaxed a little, a small smile creeping over his lips. “Yeah, kind of. But iPads? Not really sticking with tradition, are you?”

“List is list. I believe in efficiency, not legacy, and change is very good for the soul. And I invented the tablet, I should use it, yes?”

“You invented the tablet?” he deadpanned. “You sure about that?”

“Well… Bunny helped a little.”

“Bunny. Uh huh.”

North grinned and set his hands on his hips. “I think I know why you are here, Jack Frost. You want to know which list you are on.”

“Uh… no, actually,” he said. He sounded almost surprised by the idea, and North furrowed his brow, wondering why else he would have come in here. Jack ignored it, glancing at the tablets again. “Which kids are on these? Just the believers, or…?”

“All children who receive presents,” he corrected. “But I can only deliver to those who believe.”

“So where’s my three hundred years’ worth of coal, huh?” he asked playfully, and North snorted.

“I have not ever given coal. Such was just a story made up by adults. Or do you really nip at noses?”

Jack smirked but didn’t answer, stuffing one hand in his pocket before looking back down at the tablets. Rather than push, North watched the movement, and also the twist of Jack’s smile. The boy was very good at fooling himself, but three hundred years of solitude meant Jack was horrible at hiding his emotions. He was upset. Angry with his lot in life, for some reason.

But he wouldn’t have come to the Pole if he didn’t want to talk about something.

Sure enough, after a minute of silence, Jack murmured, “Would’ve been a lot of coal, if you did. Three hundred years and counting. Don’t know what I would’ve done with it all.”

It couldn’t be his age that was the problem. Jack was the youngest of all of them, and had never seemed to mind regardless. Once you reached a certain point, it didn’t matter how long you lived – just what you’d done with the time.

What you’d done with the… ah.

“Well,” he said gently, “was not really three hundred years. You hold record, but not that long.”

Jack peeked at him from under his hair, just for a second. “Really?”

North looked at him curiously for a few moments, wondering what had spurred on the thought. They didn’t discuss it, since it was a non-issue, really, but Jack hadn’t been on the naughty list for a few years now. He came and went from it regularly, his pranks and good intentions performing an ever-shifting balancing act, but he’d clearly been making an effort since becoming a guardian. He wasn’t stealing any more, or frustrating other spirits just to get a reaction. He still froze water pipes and iced pavements just to see people slip, but it had been a long time since he purposefully hurt anyone, and –

Oh.

Shostakovich.

North turned his back on the desk and leaned against it, looking at Jack directly. “You had blizzard recently?”

Jack obviously wasn’t at all surprised by the question, but he did shove a hand in his pocket, and the other gripped his staff so tightly that the blue veins became clear on the back of his hand. “Just finished yesterday. Edge of the Chilean alps.”

“Was good storm?”

“Yeah. Lightning and everything. There was, um… there was this village,” he said slowly, still staring at the red tablet. “They weren’t prepared at all.”

It was something North hadn’t dealt with in a very, very long time. Since he’d taken up Father Christmas’ legend, he had only been concerned with presents and children, maybe Pitch and his fearlings on occasion. But death…

North almost felt like he had left things such as life and death behind him, along with his banditry and other less savoury habits. But life and death were at the core of nature, and that included the seasons. Guardianship aside, Jack Frost was the Spirit of Winter. A seasonal spirit.

Winter was indeed fun, and could be a hundred other positive things, including love, and family, and joy. But when you were alone, and unprepared, winter could be—was—death.

“Jack.”

It took a moment, but Jack eventually looked up at him again, eyes wide and shining. He swallowed twice before nodding. “It happens. I know. It’s just part of… Not everyone’s first world, even in First World countries. Stuff like this is going to happen. It – it happens. It happens.”

“And it is not your fault,” North murmured, but Jack’s responding smile was somehow both weak and a little scathing.

“Okay.”

“Jack.”

He shook his head and took a step back, tapping his staff against the floor. Ice fanned out from where it touched, but Jack either didn’t notice or chose not to, turning toward the door. “Think I might go spread a little winter cheer on Bunny’s beloved country. If he asks, I’ve been here all day, okay?”

North watched him go, then sighed and turned around, swiping his hand across the green nice list to awaken the screen. He pulled up the keyboard and typed in the name he knew, instinctively, would be there.

The heartbreaking thing was that even if he handed the tablet to Jack as it was now, and showed him the full tally of good and bad deeds for the last six months, Jack wouldn’t believe it anyway.

 

* * *

 

In hindsight, going to Bunny was a bad idea. But it was the closest he could get to following Jack without admitting that was what he was doing.

“Is not right!”

“It’s the way things are,” Bunny said sensibly. He was focussed on his gardening, pulling weeds and checking for new growth. “And believe you me, mate, it’s gonna take a lot more than a few years to change anything. Frankly, I’m amazed the kid even told you as much as he did.”

“Tell me what? That there was a blizzard? That people are not all wealthy? He tells me nothing!” North threw up his hands and slumped down on a rock, his elbows on his knees as he glared at nothing in particular. “For all I know, I am making alps out of anthills.”

Bunny raised his head at that, but after a small glance, decided the mangled idiom wasn’t worth comment. It still worked. “Yeah, for all you know you are, but even if this time it’s just a coincidence, and the kid was just in a bad mood because it’s summer in Burgess, the point’s still a point: Jack makes blizzards and blizzards can hurt people. Simple fact.”

“But this is not Jack’s fault,” North insisted, and Bunny rolled his eyes.

“That’s debatable. You’re lookin’ at this from – aw, crikey, you’re not, are you?”

“I am what?”

“You’re getting all paternal on the kid!” he snapped, and pulled back from his gardening to point at him aggressively. “You’re acting like a typical bloody father. He can do no wrong and even when he does, it’s not his fault. He’s not your son, North.”

He ignored the way that jabbed, glaring right back. “I know this. Just because I do not blame Jack for the harm winter can do does not mean I do not understand –”

“Understand? Understand?” he repeated incredulously. “It’s not about understanding, mate. It’s about accepting simple facts, and you aren’t! This isn’t about fault or blame or any of that stuff. It’s a fact of nature. Snow, ice, whatever you call it, winter is dangerous. And like it or not, Jack’s a part of that. You may not want to believe it, but the kid has killed before. He’ll do it again. Winter is death, ergo, Jack brings death. No use beatin’ around the bush about it.”

North sighed loudly, and they sat in silence for a few seconds, Bunny waiting for his response. But before he could even give it, a strong wind blasted past them, and they both looked up, only noticing the cold air as it faded. Bunny swore under his breath and stood up, gazing in the direction the wind had gone. “And now he’s gone and heard the worst part of this conversation. Fan-bloody-tastic. Hope you weren’t hopin’ on seeing him any time before Christmas this year.”

North groaned, burying his face in his hands. “This gets from bad to worse.”

“It was gonna happen eventually,” Bunny pointed out, and then sighed and folded his arms under his chest. “Look, everyone knows me and Jack don’t exactly have the best history, but I’m not saying any of this to be cruel. He’s a good kid. A good guardian. He’ll never hear me say this, but you and me both know that with a little work, he could be the best of us. But that doesn’t stop the fact that he’s just as dangerous as any of us could be, with the right motivation.”

“We are guardians! We are not dangerous!”

Bunny gave him an old-fashioned look. “You’re a sorcerer-bandit that calls seven-foot tall yeti on command, I’m a time-travelling warrior rabbit, Tooth is a warrior queen that can go through walls, and Sandy can conjure any and everything from sand that only has to touch you to make you sleep. We’re dangerous, mate.” He sighed again, glancing back at the tunnel. “The difference is that we chose—choose—when to be dangerous. It’s a part of Jack’s nature. And it sure doesn’t help that he’s had three hundred years of people either ignoring him or – or telling him that.”

North looked up, but Bunny just looked away, glaring at his feet for a moment before starting again.

“Like it or not, the kid’s got issues, mate, and… and a couple years of us singin’ Kumbaya isn’t gonna change that,” he said bluntly. “We’ve gotta make up for three centuries of – of – of all that. Then maybe he can start to remember that he’s a good kid, and then he can believe that all the bad stuff winter brings isn’t all his fault. You can’t –” Bunny cut himself off as he saw the broad grin on North’s face, and he leaned back warily. “North? North, what’s that smile?”

“Bunny! You are genius!”

“Why?”

“Remember! Remember he is good kid! Jack is good boy, inside, and it is just that he cannot remember it when it matters!” he cried, and jumped to his feet, clapping his hands. “That is what we must do! We must remind Jack of good memories!”

“Me- oh, wait, North, you’re not –” He flinched when North began striding away, and chased after him. “Aw, crikey, North, hold up. Don’t go getting Tooth involved with this nonsense, it won’t end well. North? North!”

“Stop your worrying,” he said cheerfully. “This is what Tooth does, remember?”

“Did you listen to anything I said? This is serious, mate! Jack needs _time_ , you can’t go jumpin’ the gun on something like this!” he insisted, but North had already pulled out a snow globe and was shaking it. Bunny cringed, reaching out a hand but hanging back all the same. “Worse; he’s a trickster himself! He’s gonna know you’re trying to mess with his head and –”

“Is not messing with head! Is helping. Tooth Palace,” he added to the snow globe, and threw it down.

Bunny winced as the wormhole opened, but didn’t follow. “I’m tellin’ you, this is a bad idea, North.”

“Is great idea. You will see.”

And with that, he strode into the wormhole, leaving Bunny behind to stare after him, equal parts horrified and exasperated, but unable to do anything about it.

 

* * *

 

Once he’d explained the situation to Tooth, she had reluctantly agreed to give him Jack’s memory container, but hadn’t let him leave before pointing out that she didn’t think this was really the way to go about it.

“Who Jack was and who he is now are different people, North,” she said gently. “He needs to know we accept him for who and what he is now.”

“And this he will,” he said firmly, grasping her by the shoulder in reassurance. “But first he must remember there is good inside him. As he is now, he thinks only of the bad. He will not accept good without memories.”

She sighed but nodded anyway, and North returned to the Pole for his sleigh. As Bunny had said, with everything that happened so far, the chances of Jack willingly showing his face were somewhere between slim and none, so North would have to track him down, and that meant chasing the weather. His sleigh’s global position system would show him the worst storms, and while it normally showed him the best way to avoid them, this time he had other plans.

Unsurprisingly, all things considered, the globe told him to try Antarctica first.

He found Jack sitting halfway up a cliff, perched on a tiny outlay of rock that even a mountain goat would have difficulty standing on. The sleigh was not made to hover, unfortunately, meaning he had to land on the ice below, but Jack didn’t even give him time to circle around. He had only just passed the boy when Jack took off, and within seconds, had caught up and landed on the back of the sleigh.

“Following me around, North?” he asked quietly, skipping down the back steps until he was standing beside him. He had his hood up and both hands in his pockets, staff balanced precariously over his elbow. “Kinda creepy. Very stranger-danger.”

“I am not stranger,” he pointed out, and Jack snorted.

“And I’m not an innocent kid, but to look at us both… Look, if this about what Bunny said, don’t worry about it. He’s right, and I’m fine.”

“You did not hear whole conversation.”

“That doesn’t mean I disagree with what I did hear,” he said, and looked forward, staring at the back of the reindeer as they swooped up and away from the Antarctic. “It’s gotten better, what with centralised heating and health care and all that stuff, but winter is still dangerous. Pretending different isn’t gonna help anyone. It’s better that you guys know that than thinking I’m some… some painter that plays with ice.”

“Painter?”

Jack shook his head with a smirk. “One of the Jack Frost stories. Don’t worry about it.”

“Well… either way,” he said awkwardly, “if you are, as you say, ‘fine’, then why did you run?”

“I didn’t run anywhere,” he said, but he didn’t look around, either.

“Why did you not come into Warren?” he prodded gently. “Why did I find you in Antarctica?”

Jack continued staring forward for a few moments, then lowered his eyes to the front of the sleigh. If he’d gone somewhere else—New Zealand, South Africa, even Russia or Canada—he could have waved it off as work. Bringing snow and fun where it was needed. But there was no one in Antarctica but penguins and killer whales. Jack didn’t go there to work. His brow furrowed, and he took one hand from his hoodie to take hold of his staff and lean on it, but it took him a few attempts before he found a response.

“You said – you said I wasn’t always on the naughty list,” he said quietly. “Was I… before I became a guardian… did I ever make the – the nice list?”

North smiled and winked, earning a strange look from Jack, but he ignored that as he reached into a pocket and pulled out the tooth box.

Jack frowned. “Wh- where did you… Is that mine?”

“I borrowed it from Tooth,” he explained, handing it over. “I thought you may ask me such questions. You tell me, Jack Frost, if you have ever been good boy.”

For a few moments, Jack just stared at the box, before looking up at him sharply. “Has Tooth looked at these?”

“Not that I know of,” he said, and tilted his head, confused. “Why? What is this to do with fish prices?”

“I’m just trying to figure out what you were thinking this would do,” he said blankly. “North, I’ve seen my important memories. I know who I was. That’s got nothing to do with…” He trailed off, looking down at the tooth box again. His breathing was a little harder than normal, but he just shook the box twice before looking up again. “You know what? Forget it. Thank you for the thought, and worrying about me, and… and these, but… I don’t need it. I don’t need this.”

North blanched as Jack shoved the teeth back at him. There was something in his tone that reminded him of that first day at the Pole, when Jack had glared up at the moon and refused his guardianship out of spite. And the boy was turning away. “Jack!”

“No! No, don’t – just forget it, North, it’s fine,” he said, and snatched his arm away when North tried to grab it. “I’ve gotta be in Canberra in like six hours, and Auckland needs to be buried before sunrise, so, I’ll see you in a few months, okay?”

“Jack, wait, we are not done here!” he cried, and although that made Jack stop before he’d even taken off, the icy look he got in return still made him wish he’d phrased it differently. “I do not mean to push you, but I only wish to help. Come back to the Pole. Let us talk. Yes? About whatever you like. Lists, blizzards, anything.”

Jack scoffed, shaking his head again. “You don’t – no. No, I don’t – I don’t want to have this discussion. This is – it’s stupid. It’s dumb. Okay? Go… go bribe your kids and keep them – keep them safe, I – I just – ugh.” He turned again and leapt up into the air.

North lunged after him, but had to stop when his haste made him almost drop the tooth box. He gasped and fumbled, but he just managed to catch it against his hip. There was a loud, mystic clunk, and his relieved smile froze before it had even completed, recognising the pull of unstable magic. “Moi deti…”

Already half a kilometre away, an odd tug somewhere near the base of his ribs made Jack pause and glance back at the sleigh, and he flinched as he saw a huge swirling wormhole explode up around North. This didn’t look like his normal wormhole, either – this wasn’t a hole in the air, or even the beautiful, silvery portals he used to get between the different guardian homes. This was dark, and angry, a multitude of colours that somehow seemed to crack into the air even as lightning tried to sew it shut.

“North!” he screamed, and urged the wind to send him back. “North, hold on!”

“Jack! No, stay back!” he yelled, an instant before the lightning swallowed him and the sleigh whole. The reindeer screamed as their reins whipped up and around, half in this world and half in the space between, and Jack pushed himself faster still.

“No! No, no, no, no, no –” Jack crashed into the portal just as it pulsed, swallowing him and the reindeer in something like a heartbeat.

And then, just as quickly as it had come, the lightning crashed one last time, and there was nothing but a few stray snowflakes drifting down to the ocean below.

 


	2. The Chapter in which everyone meets and not everyone gets along

Astrid knew they had a problem the moment Hiccup introduced them with a broad, trusting smile.

“I saw them on the edge of the ice flow when Toothless and I went flying this morning,” he explained as the smaller of the two began awkwardly clambering off the dragon’s back.

“Was great stroke of luck!” the larger, older one announced as he leapt to his feet. Toothless coughed and shook his wings out, relieved to have lost the weight, but mostly went ignored as the giant man straightened up. He was as big as Stoick, but his long white hair and beard were straight and neatly combed. If he were older, he wore it well, with an energy Stock had started to lose. But he still whacked his hand against Hiccup’s back the exact same way as the chief. “If not for Hiccup, we would have had no clue as to where to seek shelter! When reindeer ran off, I was almost concerned for safety!”

Astrid looked up at Stoick, who returned her glance with narrowed eyes. After almost a year of shared worry, they had come to one very clear understanding: when strangers were concerned, Hiccup was an idiot, and always brought home trouble.

And these two, Astrid decided as she looked them over, definitely had the look of trouble. The big one was normal enough, with his incredible size and boisterous voice, but he was too neat and clean. He looked like a mainland merchant. The small one couldn’t have put her more on edge if he’d tried: around the same size as Hiccup, he wore a heavy cloak with the hood up, his arms tucked around himself to hide them, and  she’d seen bare feet as he got off Toothless. And just to cap it off, what little they could see of his face was open and scared. No doubt going for the innocent look.

“Greetings,” Stoick said as he moved forward, gently pushing Hiccup back near her. “I am Stoick, leader of the Hooligan tribe.”

“Nicholas St. North,” the large one replied, and thumped a heavy hand on the smaller’s shoulder, who flinched at the contact before immediately schooling his expression into something cold and distant. An interesting tactic. “This is Jack. We apologise for any inconvenience, and beg only your shelter while we recover our steeds.”

Nicholas? Jack? What kind of names were those? Astrid blinked, then squashed the childish thought and refocussed on glaring at ‘Jack’. After a second, he noticed her look and tilted his head as if it perplexed him.

“Of course. We have beds in the visitor’s lodge,” Stoick said lightly. “You’ll have to forgive us, though. The blacksmith, Gobber, recently had some trouble with his home and is staying there. You and your son will have to bunk with him.”

“We’re not related,” Jack said suddenly, and everyone but Hiccup and North looked at him in mild surprise. Hiccup was still too busy staring at Stoick, confused by the comment about Gobber, and North only tightened his grip on Jack’s shoulder, his beard twitching as Jack cleared his throat and added, “but thanks. Either way.”

“It is very good of you,” North agreed. “Please, let me extend my apologies to Sir Gobber. For intrusion.”

“Of course. Hiccup, Astrid, why don’t you take our other visitor to the lodge?” Stoick suggested, his eyes ordering Astrid to keep Hiccup in line before switching to his son for one of their silent arguments. He only let it carry on for a minute before ending it the same way he always did, with an implied ‘we will discuss this later, Hiccup’. He then turned his attention to North. “At this time of day, he’ll be at the farm. Come, let me take you.”

“Very good. Jack,” North unhooked the sack he’d been lugging over his shoulder and tossed it to the boy, who only barely managed to catch it, only to immediately stagger and fall under the weight. North’s beard twitched again, his eyebrows meeting in slight concern. “There should be shoes in there.”

Collapsed at an awkward angle over the sack, his only response was an annoyed scowl, and North hesitated, but then chuckled and gestured for Stoick to lead the way. Once they were gone, Astrid turned to watch Hiccup drag Jack back to his feet and try to help him haul the sack up onto Toothless, both of them laughing when they failed to even pick it up.

Oh yes, she decided as she moved in to do it for them, she would definitely be keeping an eye on this.

 

* * *

 

“Hey, ow!” Hiccup whined as Astrid punched him. “What is the matter with you?”

“Are you crazy, bringing random strangers to the village?” she hissed. “After what happened last time?”

“Oh, come on, Astrid, they’re nothing like Heather,” he said calmly. “Trust me.”

“Trust you? Trust _you_?” she hissed. “Hiccup, the only things I trust you with are dragons and my life.”

His expression twisted, obviously not sure how to take that. “Thank you. I think. Not really.”

She ignored that, looking over to where Jack was supposedly pawing through the sack he and North had brought with them, but was actually eyeing off Toothless. The one good thing about this was that Toothless was eyeing him right back. He wasn’t snarling, unfortunately, but he was watching. So no immediate trust there, then.

“He’s wearing a hood. Inside. And he isn’t wearing shoes,” she said. “There’s something weird about him.”

Hiccup’s eyebrows dropped along with his eyelids. “Because he’s not wearing shoes? There are loads of reasons people don’t wear shoes, Astrid.”

“In the snow?”

He grimaced and waved his hands, still unconvinced, and she slapped her thigh impatiently. “Hiccup! It’s biting winter! The only person who would choose not to wear shoes in this weather is Jokul Frosti!”

“Jokul Frosti?” he repeated blankly.

“Ice giants and winter sprites. That’s it.”

When he didn’t immediately respond, she looked at him again, and saw the smirk he was fighting off. It took a second before she realised what she’d said, and then scoffed at herself before whacking him again.

“You know what I mean!”

“Yeah. You and I have a very different definition of the word ‘giant’.”

“Hiccup!” She pushed him hard enough to make him stumble, but a growl from Toothless made them both look up and see he and Jack watching them. Jack’s expression was hard to gauge in the shadow of his hood, but Toothless looked even more unimpressed with the roughhousing than usual, so Astrid gently pulled Hiccup back to her side and he winked to reassure his dragon.

Toothless turned back to Jack, who very pointedly went back to what he’d been pretending to do, and the two teenagers exchanged glances. Hiccup was still smirking, though, so she glared at him.

“Are you making fun of me?”

“No. No, no, no, I would never,” he said, but then added, “So… Jokul Frosti? He just… shows up, says hi, paints a few windows in person?”

“I was making a comparison.”

“He doesn’t even have a paintbrush,” he pointed out, and rubbed his arm reflexively when she raised her fist. “No, I’m done, I promise!”

“Better be. My point is, there’s something weird about it. I don’t think you should trust them until we know more about who they are.”

He just looked at her for a few moments, then sighed and shook his head. “This isn’t like Heather. Really, Astrid, if you’d seen them on the ice, you’d get it. They were so lost, and really disoriented. Especially Jack, he just stared at me for ages. Me, not Toothless. Like he couldn’t believe I was there. You can’t fake that kind of… out of it-ness.”

“Yes, you can,” she argued. “It’s the oldest trick in the book. Playing all weak and innocent so you don’t think they’re a threat.”

“And what do you want me to have done then, Astrid?” he asked, his patience apparently wearing thin. “They were in the middle of the frozen ocean, miles from anywhere, hurt and lost. I wasn’t going to just leave them to die.”

It would have been the Viking way, Astrid thought irritably. Women and children were one thing – two odd-looking men were another. But since when had Hiccup ever done things the Viking way?

“Fine. You don’t trust me, whatever,” he said. “But what about Toothless? He _likes_ them.”

“Does he?” she asked, and they both looked around again. Toothless had shuffled closer to Jack, one leg at a time and side-on, pausing to just look at him every few steps. As they watched, he finally came close enough to sniff at Jack’s cloak, then gently nose it aside. He was surprisingly skinny underneath, with the strangest tunic they’d ever seen,  but they only got a glimpse of it before he pulled away, his cloak falling shut again. He knelt down to Toothless’ level, and let the dragon sniff his face a little before scratching at the crook of his jaw. Typically, Toothless all but melted into his hands, and Hiccup looked at Astrid sideways.

She scowled and folded her arms. “I’m still watching him.”

“Of course you are,” he drawled, and moved forward to join his partner. Astrid leaned back against the wall, refusing to let anyone trick her again.

* * *

 

North and Gobber had hit it off almost immediately, and spent dinner loudly trading war stories and drinking. Despite his age, North hung on their every word about the dragon wars, his eyes wide and excited. He almost seemed disappointed they’d found peace, and Hiccup couldn’t help but think of the kid he’d been only a year ago, adoring dragons without understanding anything about them.

He smiled and glanced over his shoulder at Jack, who had refused his invitation to eat with them and was lingering in the shadows, watching everything from the depths of his hood. He’d insisted he was fine, but Hiccup was growing increasingly worried about the guy – he varied from being super casual to incredibly silent and on-edge. It made Hiccup think he might have hurt his head in the crash, but, of course, Astrid saw something sinister in it.

“I’m telling you, there’s something weird about him,” she insisted. “And it’s not just the cloak, though that’s really creepy, don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” Ruffnut agreed. “There are only two types of people in the world that wear hoods. People with horrible, disfiguring scars—”

“—and assassins!” Tuffnut continued, and they nodded at each other excitedly. “Oh, man, that would be so cool! Maybe he’s been like, hired by the Outcasts, and he’s been sent here to _kill_ Hiccup!”

“Uh, what?” Hiccup asked, quickly tuning back into the conversation.

“Ooh, maybe we should tell Stoick!” suggested Ruffnut. “Maybe he’ll assign us guard duty!”

“We’ll get front line seats to the action!”

“Yeah!”

Astrid calmly reached over and slammed their heads together, while Snotlout snorted.

“Please. He’s tall, but he’s gotta be the size of a twig under that cloak,” he said. “Who wants to see two toothpicks duking it out? Besides, he’s probably just the big guy’s kid or something, and he keeps him under the cloak so no one notices how tiny he is. Didn’t your dad used to do that, Hiccup?”

He blinked, then blushed and looked down at his meal. He’d almost forgotten, but that _had_ been a tactic of his father’s, back when Stoick used to take Hiccup to visit other tribes. He had this story he’d try to sell about how Hiccup was gaining mystique, but it would only ever last until he tripped over his own feet and landed in the mud.

“I don’t know, guys, I think Astrid’s right about there being something weird about him,” Fishlegs said slowly. “Look at the dragons. Normally, if there was someone new on the island, they’d be all over him, trying to work him out. But with him…?” He trailed off, and they all looked around to check. Sure enough, the few dragons that were in the Hall _were_ watching him, but they kept their distance, and when they did have to go near him, they kept their heads low. “I don’t know about you, but I sure find that a little creepy.”

“Right?” Astrid said encouragingly.

“ _Or_ it could just be our training starting to pay off,” Hiccup suggested, but the moment they all looked at him, he sank back down in his seat, defeated. “Yeah, okay, it’s kinda weird. But it doesn’t make him an assassin. Besides, Toothless checked him out and didn’t have any problems! And if he was an assassin, or something, wouldn’t he be making more of an effort to not come off as creepy? You know, lull us into a sense of security, or something?”

“Unless he’s a really _good_ assassin,” said Tuffnut. “Trying to mess with our minds, you know?”

Ruffnut nodded again. “Yeah, like, make us think that a real assassin would be trying to be friendly to throw us off—”

“—but he knows that we know that, so he’s being creepy, so we don’t suspect—”

“—and so we let him sneak around, and then—”

“—bam! Hiccup walks straight into a knife! Dead in five seconds!”

“Glorious.”

Hiccup stared at them blandly. “You know, I’m honestly not sure whether to be flattered you’re looking out for me, or really disturbed with the knowledge you’re probably just in it for the bloodshed.”

“Duh,” they chorused, as if it were a stupid question. He sighed loudly and looked around, then did a double-take when he realised Jack’s shadow was now empty. A quick check confirmed North was still by the fire—Gobber was teaching him a drinking song about pirates—but Jack… was almost out the door.

Hiccup quickly pushed his plate away and stood up. “Well, if he’s an assassin, then we might as well get my death out of the way. I’m going to talk to him.”

“Oh, no you aren’t,” Astrid snapped, snatching for his vest, and when he managed to dodge, she got up as well. “Not without me.”

Knowing she wouldn’t likely let him go alone, he didn’t argue, but instead looked at the others. “What about you guys?”

“I don’t think he’s trying to kill you,” Snotlout said lazily. “This whole thing seems kinda boring to me.”

“Yeah, he probably won’t get a chance to attack if Astrid’s around,” Tuffnut agreed.

“Bor-ing,” added Ruffnut.

Fishlegs sunk down in his seat a little. “And, um, if it’s okay with you, I think I might just, you know, stay out of his way until you guys figure out what’s going on. Okay?”

Hiccup rolled his eyes while Astrid gave him a scathing look, but neither said anything, just turned and headed out after Jack. He’d already slipped out the door, and it took them almost a minute to get out themselves, but surprisingly, he hadn’t gotten too far. He was literally strolling through the plaza, turning on his heel every other step so he could see and watch anything that caught his eye.

Even in the dark and under the hood, his broad grin was clearly visible, and he practically skipped out of people’s way, revelling in… something. A little girl almost ran into him, but stopped at the last second and apologised, earning a surprised but almost thrilled chuckle in return.

“No, excuse _me_!” he said, and waved goodbye when she darted around him, back to her mother. He laughed again as he stared after her, then shook his head and continued on.

Hiccup raised a pointed eyebrow at Astrid. He couldn’t imagine any assassin, or otherwise suspicious person, politely apologising to a little girl, but she just scoffed in response. They hurried after him, neither really sure why they were bothering to keep to the shadows and hide when Stoick had openly told them to stick near him. But still, when a dark shape flitted across Jack’s path, making him jump back in surprise, they both instinctively slipped into the recess of the nearest house to hide and watch.

Then they both had to bite back groans as Toothless came into the light, snickering triumphantly and slamming his tail against the ground in applause of his own playful trick. Hiccup shook his head, amused, while Astrid sighed. “As bad as his rider…”

Jack hesitated a moment, then rushed forward, startling Toothless with the sudden movement. It looked like he was planning to bullrush him, so Toothless leaned down at the ready, but Jack leapt up off the ground at the last second and tumbled through the air, his hands hitting Toothless’s saddle just long enough to push him off again so he landed weightlessly on the other side. It shocked Toothless into stillness for a second, in which Jack calmly pulled his hood back up over his head, before the dragon spun in place and Jack had to dance out of range of a playful snap.

“Hey, hey, all’s fair in love and tag, Kitty-lizard. Speaking of which, why would you want to play with me?” he asked. “Shouldn’t you be with Hiccup?”

Hiccup smirked over his shoulder at Astrid, but in defiance of Jack’s obvious lack of trickery, she only returned a warning frown. And he had to admit she was right—Jack _might_ be smart enough to know he’d need to trick the dragons as well as the humans—but Hiccup still rolled his eyes. She was getting paranoid.

Meanwhile, Toothless had apparently considered Jack’s question and decided it wasn’t worth answering. He thumped at the ground with both front feet, goading Jack into another game, and Hiccup was amazed when Jack not only seemed to understand the gesture, but knew how to respond. He grinned and stamped his own foot forward, then quickly slid it back, inviting a chase. Never one to turn down a challenge, Toothless immediately pounced, just barely missing Jack as he twirled out of the way.

“Ooh, nearly! Try again!” Jack suggested, then cried out as he had to leap backwards to avoid another jump. “Wow, you’re really bad at this!”

Hiccup bit his lip to keep from chuckling at Toothless’ growl, and grinned when he felt Astrid’s amused sigh on his shoulder. They both settled in to watch the game play out, content to watch.

It was kind of nice to see Toothless having some fun. It wasn’t like he and Hiccup never played, and Hiccup had long since gotten over his concerns that Toothless didn’t really want to be with him, but sometimes it did seem like he didn’t have much outside Hiccup. The other dragons hung out together, even when their riders weren’t around, but Toothless was always with Hiccup. He never willingly spent time with just the other dragons, or anyone else in the village, if he could help it.

So it was kind of nice to see his buddy playing around with someone… even if that someone was a complete stranger that Astrid apparently thought was trying to kill them.

The game finally ended when a shout from the plaza distracted Jack long enough for Toothless to tackle him. He yelled as he hit the ground, but it quickly dissolved into laughter, and Toothless’ own breathy guffaw soon followed, the two pushing at each other until Toothless finally surrendered and let Jack sit up.

Apparently, his reward for winning the game was an allowance to snuffle at Jack’s finally uncovered hair, and Hiccup grinned at Jack’s objections, knowing how much it tickled. But his amusement quickly faded as he realised how different Jack looked without his hood.

He was… a lot younger than he’d seemed. Hiccup still couldn’t place his age, guessing anywhere between a year or two younger than them to a year or two older, but at the same time, he really did look… _young_. Innocent. Not what Hiccup had expected at all, from his voice.

But the moment was gone almost as quickly as it came, Jack gently pushing Toothless back and pulling his hood back up. His other hand stayed on Toothless’ neck, but his attention moved up, until even in the darkness, they could tell he was gazing up at the moon.

“Just once,” he mumbled, almost too quietly for them to hear, “just _once_ I wish you’d talk to me. Tell me you're still there.”

Toothless crooned quietly, then looked in Hiccup’s direction, his eyes wide and pleading. Unsurprised Toothless had known he was there, Hiccup glanced back at Astrid before he let out a soft breath and stepped out of the shadows, folding his arms over his waist. “Hey.”

Jack flinched, then scrambled to his feet, shaking off his melancholy mood along with the snow on his cloak. “Hey. How long have you been there?”

“Long enough,” Astrid said as she came up behind him, and Jack’s hood twitched toward her, his expression impossible to see in the shadow. She shifted her weight, awkwardly refusing to meet his gaze as she asked. “Aren’t you cold?”

He stared at her for a moment, before a glint of teeth told them he was smiling. “Would it offend you if I said no?”

She ignored that, and Jack went back to Hiccup. “So, since I was here first, I’m assuming I didn’t interrupt a make-out session –”

“Wh- ma- uh –” Hiccup blanched. “What – what – why would you even – I mean…”

He trailed off when he noticed Jack’s evil grin, and huffed out a breath. Great. He’d just been misdirected with a single sentence. He squared his shoulders and tried again. “We were just wondering if you were hungry,” he said firmly. “You didn’t eat anything back there.”

Jack shrugged. “More fun to be had out here.”

Hiccup glanced at Toothless, but any response he could have made was interrupted by a loud, off-key screech bursting through the quiet of the night.

“Ohhhh, I love my axe and I love my mace, and I love my wife with her ugly face –!”

“Oh gods…” If he’d thought his father would be upset over him nearly losing sight of Jack  tonight, he’d go _spare_ over the idea of Gobber getting drunk with _his_ charge.

A second voice joined the first for the next verse, and Jack cringed with his whole body. “And that would be reason number two I left. That’s just embarrassing.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, as all of them looked back down to where Gobber and North were weaving their way through the plaza. They didn’t look particularly bad, sobriety-wise, but they were singing very loudly, very off-key, and generally making a nuisance of themselves. “Uh… maybe we should um… herd them toward the lodge, what do you say?”

“Sure. I’ll take the big one.”

Compared to the two of them, they were both massive, but Hiccup could get the joke and the idea, so he just smiled at Astrid. “I think we’re fine. I’ll… see you tomorrow?”

She hesitated again, her eyes flicking between Jack and the ruckus in the plaza, but eventually seemed to decide that her peace of mind wasn’t worth the hassle of dealing with a drunk Gobber. She jabbed her finger in the centre of his chest. “Okay. But I want to see you early tomorrow – and you better not forget this time.”

“I won’t,” he promised, and winced at the disbelieving look she gave him before walking away. He turned back to Jack, who was watching her go, expression lost in the darkness.

But his smile flashed when he noticed Hiccup’s attention. “I think she’s warming up to me.”

“That’s a… statement,”  he said, and Jack snickered as Hiccup gestured him to the drunkards. “Let’s get this over with. Come on, Toothless.”

 

* * *

 

As he bunked down for the night, inwardly cursing Stoick and his refusal to ever give Spitelout the horrible jobs he ‘trusted’ his best friend with, Gobber watched from the corner of his eye as Jack and North fussed over their own sleeping arrangements on the other side of the lodge.

Jack was perched on the end of one of the beds, cloak draped to hide him completely from view as he watched North pull countless fur blankets from his sack, apparently with the intention of burrowing in them.

“What happened to North the Bandit King?” teased Jack. “ _He_ slept on hard stone in freezing sleet with only vodka to keep him warm, I hear.”

North chuckled good naturedly. “He was a much younger man, with bull-headed stubbornness to keep him strong. I am old, I need… what is word… consideration!”

“I think the word you’re looking for is ‘coddling’.”

“Ohh, and a strong boy like you would not need coddling. So you do not want blanket to sleep on.”

Jack lifted his hands in mock surrender. “Fair call, I apologise. In my defense, my mind isn’t as sharp as yours, tonight. _I_ haven’t been drinking, after all.”

It was interesting, Gobber thought as he pounded his pillow into submission and lay down, to hear someone else exchanging the kind of teasing banter he and Hiccup swapped, even if it did sound a little different. Jack was more aggressive than Hiccup usually was, while North was open in his affection for the boy, something Gobber would never sink so low as to show (or, at least, he hoped he didn’t. Didn’t want Hiccup thinking he was soft, or anything!), but the mood was the same.

Regardless, it was an interesting relationship their strangers had, and something Gobber planned to discuss with Stoick.

As much as he liked North, with his loud, boisterous laugh and the boundless enthusiasm he seemed to have for everything, Gobber was not buying the travelling craftsman story for a moment. The old man moved like a mainland warrior – light but sure on his feet, and he was always aware of his surroundings. Not even merchants were that observant. But even more concerning was how he watched the children of the tribe with an assessing eye. It seemed harmless enough, but it was still odd that a man who claimed to be a craftsman would be even mildly interested in children, let alone judge them with every glance.

And it made his story about Jack being his assistant even less likely than it had been when the boy was just a mysterious figure under a heavy cloak. What could he possibly need Jack’s assistance _for_?

“How are you doing, Jack?” North asked quietly, regaining Gobber’s attention, and Jack grunted in response.

“I’ve been better. I need to find my staff.”

“Can you tell where it is?”

“Uhh… kind of? I don’t know, it’s… this place is… I feel weird,” he said, and blew out a breath. “What about you? Do you think the reindeer are alright? I don’t think they fell through the ice, but without my staff…”

“Bah. Deer are strong creatures. They will be fine,” he said, and the slats of the bed creaked as he sat down. “But you are greater concern. We must find staff, and then we can worry about getting home.”

Jack didn’t answer, and after a few moments, it became clear the conversation had ended. Gobber fought the urge to roll over and see what Jack was doing, but given how careful they’d been about not revealing anything about themselves throughout the afternoon, it was surprising they’d even spoken like that without confirming he was asleep. He didn’t want to press his luck or catch Jack’s attention again.

Instead, he shifted into a slightly more comfortable position and focussed on falling asleep. He’d find out what they were talking about tomorrow.

 

* * *

 

Somewhere, deep under the islands, a pale white head rose, shaking off sleet and snow as golden eyes opened.

Something had changed.

It wasn’t like the Great Change… the shift from constant terror to fragile hope. Nor was it like the small changes that had come slowly these last few months – the slow build of caution to fear, fear of the known, of the old.

Those changes had been simple. They had been cyclical. Things like that happened, as men grew and changed and warred. He was used to such changes and only took note of them as new steps in an old dance.

This change… this was different.

Something in the air had changed. Something new had come, and brought with it something old. Something forgotten.

There was magic in the air.

He stood with slow grace, rolling his shoulders to stretch his wings as he walked toward the mouth of the cave he’d called home for a century. He’d retreated here so long ago, not out of fear or weakness, but out of boredom. Bored of the same tastes, the same petty problems. Humans had left magic behind and it made even his favourite flavours seem dull.

But now…

Magic had come back to the world. Two, no… no, _eight_ creatures filled with magic, fully formed and ripe. Six were weak, simple… simple magical creatures, he could tell. But two of them were strong. Powerful.

Vulnerable.

He sucked in a breath through his teeth, savouring the flavour he could just smell on the wind.

Perhaps, he thought as he took to the air, it was time he saw what exactly the humans were up to.


	3. The Chapter in which Jack doesn't panic or strangle North

Three hundred years ago, Jack had walked through a village very much like this one.

The architecture was different, with dogs instead of dragons, and it hadn’t been on a mountain side. But the people had been the same. Busy, hardworking people that saw each other more like family. Night would bring a warm, homey silence that made you feel safe, rather than alone.

He closed his eyes and pulled the hood of his borrowed cloak higher over his head as he turned away from it. A lot of small villages felt like that. Even ones back in his own world and time. And while North might have been content to explore this one, Jack had more pressing concerns.

Whatever had brought them here had ripped Jack’s staff from his hand, and he couldn’t relax without it. Even now, focussed as he was on one single goal, his mind felt fractured. He could hear the wind, but not make out a single clear thought. He could touch the weather, but it was like brushing with fingertips, just out of reach. His magic felt dull. He felt lifeless. He felt… alone.

He needed his staff back.

On the upside, he could kind of feel it. It was like a sparkle against the back of his mind, drawing him in a certain direction. He knew for sure that it was in one piece, wherever it was. So all he needed to do was follow the sparkle and he’d find it.

But without his staff, he couldn’t fly. Which meant he was stuck walking, and he was pretty sure his staff wasn’t on the island. He would be in real trouble if that didn’t just turn out to be paranoia.

He followed the sparkle for hours, silently following it through the woods and mountains. He discovered, to his great relief, that he could freeze water underfoot, though not as much as he could with his staff. Just enough to make an ice flow that anyone heavier than him would break with a touch. It was enough to get him across rivers, but that was about it.

Which became a problem when he finally reached the other side of the island, and found himself staring across an endless ocean to the sparkle just out of reach.

“Of course,” he murmured, lifting his eye to the moon.

It wasn’t his moon. Not the moon that had hung, still and silent, for three hundred years. This moon belonged to a different world, and for all he knew there was no Man in it. He and North were alone here.

He just didn’t understand what had happened. One minute, everything had been its usual mess, and then suddenly North’s wormhole… warped? Broke? Something had happened. Jack had tried to help, but all he ended up doing was getting sucked through it.

Next thing he knew, North was shaking him awake, shouting Russian in his panic. He’d relaxed a little when Jack proved himself still alive, but that wasn’t saying much. Without his staff and after being thrown through a wormhole across time and space, Jack had barely been coherent enough to sit up straight, let alone reassure North he was fine. Which was why he’d barely noticed North bundling him up in a heavy cloak, or been able to ask how he had managed to get to his travel sack when the sleigh was clearly missing.

As he headed back into the forest, Jack drew the cloak tighter around himself, considering it. North’s travel sack was usually stored under the steps at the back of the sleigh. For it to have come loose, the sleigh would have had to have been hit pretty bad. And for it to have thrown North from it too, but not damage the harnesses enough for the reindeer to escape… What the heck could have happened?

Worse was that the _what_ wasn’t the weirdest part. The weirdest part was _where_ they had landed, in a world with living, breathing dragons, and mortal humans that could not only see them, but didn’t seem to believe enough to know who they were.

If it had just been Hiccup, he would have assumed he and Toothless were just some myth Jack wasn’t familiar with. But a whole village… full of warm and strong people…

The first snowflake dropping in front of his eyes made him stop, then scowl up at the sky. The worst thing about having your emotions hooked into the weather was that you couldn’t fool yourself into thinking you were fine.

Even though he _was_ fine. It was just that they were here, in this strange world that had dragons, and something older than that. Something that felt like the moon, or Mother Nature, or something…

He just felt weird here. Off-balance. Harassed. Like when he needed to let loose a blizzard. Like he had at the start of the week. Like he didn’t want to feel around this village of wonderful people that had taken in strangers when they clearly had bad history with doing so. He wanted to go home. He wanted to go curl up in Antarctica and forget this whole week ever happened.

He wanted his staff.

Despite all his best attempts to calm down, the snow was still falling lightly when he got back to the village outskirts, and dawn had begun to rise over the clouds. He smiled at the dragons that were just coming awake, lifting their heads to watch him pass, but he didn’t stop to play. Most of them seemed too cautious of him for that – Toothless was the only one that had been openly friendly so far, and even he’d taken a while to get there.

Of course, it wasn’t really that surprising, he thought as he reached the cliff overlooking the village proper. There was a dragon on every roof, silently watching the snow fall like they knew there was something weird about it. The same way they’d watched him last night.

And there, on the largest house in the village, was Toothless. Only he wasn’t watching the snow – he’d twisted around to stare right back at Jack.

He didn’t look angry, or even concerned. He was just watching. Waiting, almost.

Jack’s eyes slid down to the guest lodge.

If he was smart, and good, he would go back to the lodge and pretend to have been sleeping. It would make both North and Gobber happier if he did.

On the other hand, there was a dragon practically _asking_ to play with him.

 _Hmmm_.

The decision was taken away from him when a rooftop hatch opened, and none other than Hiccup poked his head out. Toothless quickly redirected his attention to his rider, and Jack smirked before skipping down the mountain toward him.

By the time he got there, lightly jumping up the sloping back of the house, Hiccup had crawled out and was sitting with Toothless, watching the village dragons watch the snow. “What’s going on, buddy?” he asked softly, more to himself than Toothless. “What do you all see?”

Jack glanced up again, wondering if they could tell it was magic. That seemed… weird. So he chuckled to get Hiccup’s attention, jumping the rest of the way up and onto the roof proper. “Looks like snow to me.”

Hiccup flinched and jerked around to look at him, but Jack just grinned back. “You know, dragon or no dragon, I’m pretty sure sitting out here without a cape is just asking for trouble. You want pneumonia, do you?”

“Says the guy who walked barefoot on ice yesterday,” he shot back, brow furrowing as his eyes darted down and toward the back of the house. Probably wondering how he’d gotten up. Not that Jack intended to tell him. “How long have you been there?”

“Not long. I was just coming back from the woods when I saw you up here. But I’m serious, kid, you should cover up,” he said, and peered down through the roof hatch. There was a kind of bed there, with no mattress but a bundle of furs. He dropped down, snagged a blanket, and then hopped back up and out again, ignoring the further widening of Hiccup’s eyes by just throwing the blanket at the boy’s head.

He caught it with his face and a loud yelp. Toothless snickered, but Hiccup quickly recovered, scrambling to grab at the blanket and wrap it around his shoulders. “Wait, y-you – you – you were in the woods?” he asked. “On your own? Does Gobber know?”

He smiled wryly. “You know, you’re doing a very bad job of pretending we’re not under watch,” he noted, and Hiccup blushed, but said nothing as Jack sat down on Toothless’ other side. “He was still snoring when I left. But rest assured, my movements were not unnoticed,” he added, gesturing to the dragons around them. “Every single dragon in this place watched me go. Can we say creepy, by the way?”

“Yeah, they’ve been acting kind of weird,” he said quietly, glancing at them. “I thought they were just kind of confused by having new people in the village, but this is all just… It’s like they sense something, you know?”

Jack cleared his throat and tried to change the subject. “So anyway, since we’re so ‘not’ under surveillance, do you have any idea how me and North are supposed to find our reindeer and get out of here?”

“Well, it’s _surveillance_ you’re ‘not’ under,” he said, playing along with a grin, “not house arrest. As long as someone goes with you,  you can go wherever.”

Which was so helpful, when you were looking for magical sticks, beasts, and sleighs. Not to mention that the dragons would almost definitely scare the deer off. But he couldn’t really argue it without explaining it, so… He sighed and looked back out over the village. People were starting to come out, but they carried on with their day as if the snow wasn’t even there, and the dragons weren’t doing anything unusual. Jack’s lips twisted with a surge of fond nostalgia.

“Well, you know,” Hiccup stammered loudly, recatching his attention, “That someone doesn’t have to be Gobber. Wanna take a ride with me and Toothless?”

Jack looked at him sideways, then smirked. “You’re kind of a flake, huh?”

“Huh?” Hiccup balked, obviously caught between surprise and offence. “Wh- what do you –”

“I think you have a prior engagement that you’re forgetting about.”

“Huh? What engagement?”

Toothless gave a long-suffering huff, and Hiccup apparently decided on offended. “ _What_ engagement?”

Jack leaned over Toothless’ back with a conspiratorial whisper. “You promised to meet with Astrid this morning.”

Hiccup blinked at him twice, then gasped as the memory came back. “Oh, gods, I did!” he yelped, and nearly threw off his blanket as he flailed around, looking for the sun. “Oh gods, oh… oh, what time is it? Please tell me it’s still early!”

“It’s just past dawn, chill out, kiddo!” Jack laughed, waving his hand for calm. “You’re fine! Calm down! Man, the way you jumped!”

Hiccup only gaped at him, and Jack had to snigger. He just looked so ridiculous and panicked over the possibility of maybe being late to meet his girlfriend. Poor kid was already whipped! After a few seconds, Hiccup closed his mouth in a scowl and looked to Toothless for help, but the dragon just rolled his eyes and turned away in clear exasperation.

“What is this?” demanded Hiccup. “Where’s the loyalty?”

That only made Jack laugh harder, but he still reached over to pat Hiccup’s arm in companionable but utterly false sympathy. “It’s okay. Women are scary, we know this.”

“I – you – she –” Hiccup floundered, and Jack might have taken pity on him if Toothless hadn’t been on his side. Obviously the kid wasn’t used to being teased like this. Man, Jack hoped he tried a lame comeback. He really wanted to see what awkward viking teenagers called each other.

But after a few seconds, Hiccup’s burgeoning smile fell into something else, his eyes shifting down to Toothless. Recognising a lonely thought when he saw one, Jack pressed his lips together and abruptly stood up. “Well then!”

Apparently it had been a little too abrupt, because Hiccup started so badly he nearly slid off the icy roof. Both Jack and Toothless jerked to grab him, but Hiccup had already caught himself, and quickly looked up as if hoping neither of them had noticed.

Jack bit down his grin to ask, “You okay?”

“Fine!” he said, scrabbling his way back up to Toothless. “Only my dignity is hurt.”

“Well, as long as it’s nothing important,” he quipped, then held out his hand in offer. “Maybe you should get off the roof.”

“Good idea,” he agreed, and took the hand for balance as he got up. He brushed the ice off his trousers and started moving back to the window, but paused when he was only halfway in to stare back at him. “Are you coming?”

Jack raised an eyebrow, amused. “On your date? I’ll pass, thanks.”

“Wh- no!” he yelped. “It’s not a date, and – I mean – I meant come inside!” he said, and finished jumping down. Toothless followed him in, and Jack wandered over to peer down into the room, oddly intrigued by the invitation. He couldn’t remember ever actually being verbally invited somewhere before. Hiccup opened his mouth to speak again, but was cut off by Stoick’s voice breaking the quiet of the house.

“Hiccup? Was that you just now? Did you drop something, son?”

He blinked, grimaced at Jack, and then turned to call back, “Yeah, sorry, Dad! Toothless was just coming in from the roof!”

Knowing it would go unnoticed if he did it now, Jack took advantage of Hiccup’s distraction to drop down onto the bed beside him. He winked at Toothless to keep him quiet, just for fun.

“Ah, fair enough,” Stoick called back. “But close that window before the snow gets in.”

“Sure thing,” Hiccup said, and Jack grinned – he couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to slam the roof hatch shut behind him. Hiccup jumped a mile.

“What?” Jack asked, smiling innocently at Hiccup’s furious stare. “He said to close it.”

“When – when did you –” His head jerked up toward the hatch, then back down to Jack, before looking at Toothless. “When did he – you didn’t –”

“Hm, flaky _and_ non-observant,” Jack noted, turning his head toward Toothless. “You really picked a good rider here, buddy.”

Toothless laughed, and Hiccup glared at him until Jack caught his attention with another broad grin. “Hey, don’t get angry at Toothless. We can’t help the truth, right?”

Hiccup lowered his eyelids, and then, without any further warning, shoved him off the bed.

 

* * *

 

 

The snow had stopped by the time they reached Astrid’s house, where she was filling a large basket with dead chickens. Jack winced and hung back, grossed out for a myriad of reasons, but Hiccup and Toothless continued onward, heedless of the bird corpses.

“You’re _still_ feeding her chicken?” demanded Hiccup. “Where are you getting them all?”

“That’s my secret,” she explained imperiously. “Why? Are you worried we’re going to leave you two in the dust?”

“I’m more worried about where you’d getting them. Our flock should be long gone by now.” He narrowed his eyes at her look, then sighed and folded his arms. “Okay… Astrid, I expect this from Snotlout and the twins, but you should really know better.”

“What?” she asked playfully. “We’re _vikings_. We’re supposed to raid.”

“Not other vikings!” he pointed out. “There’s like… like a code. And you’re riding a dragon! If the other tribes think we’re using dragons on raids, they might take it as a declaration of war.”

“Calm down,” she said, and slapped Toothless away from where he was sniffing the basket. Then, possibly because he merely looked offended rather than chastised, she closed the lid and picked it up, balancing it on one hip despite the weight. “I’m not stealing from anyone important – mostly just the Bog Burglars. And they steal more chickens than they can possibly use, so I don’t see the problem.”

Hiccup groaned but didn’t argue, instead following her as she headed around the side of the house. Jack trailed behind, intrigued to see what kind of dragon Astrid had.

It was a huge, dinosaur-like… parrot. With spikes. And it had been actually preening its scales until they showed up, at which point it straightened up to its very impressive full height and cocked its head at Jack. He tried to smile back, but honestly it was kind of intimidating.

Noticing where her dragon’s attention was, Astrid frowned, then huffed and clicked her tongue. However interesting it found him, breakfast was apparently more pressing, and the dragon barely waited until the basket was set down in front of it before diving in. Once it was eating, Astrid folded her arms and leaned back against the stable with a pointed look. “You know, Hiccup, when I said I wanted to see you, I kind of thought the only one you’d be bringing along was Toothless.”

Hiccup winced, but Jack decided to come to his rescue by holding up both hands in surrender. “Hey, don’t mind me. I’m only here until Gobber wakes up. Then I’ll be out of your hair.”

“You know we can’t leave him alone,” Hiccup pointed out diplomatically, then grimaced at Jack. “Nothing against you, of course. We just haven’t had great luck with strangers on the island.”

“And yet you brought us here,” he noted. “Is trust your good quality to balance out the flaky, unobservant traits?”

“Hey!” Astrid snapped, then frowned at Hiccup’s wry grin. “Hiccup!”

“It’s just a joke,” he assured her.

Months spent trying to play nice with Bunny told Jack humour was not going to win him points, and he decided to try a more serious route. “Look, I get you guys are cautious. I have trust issues too, don’t get me wrong, but if I’m getting anything outta all this, it’s that one: you’re kind of important, and two: everyone will be much happier once me and North are gone. So isn’t it better if I get out of your hair now and go find our reindeer so we can get out of here?”

“The problem is, if you go out on your own, we won’t know that you’re actually looking for your… rain-whatevers,” Astrid explained bluntly. “Not to mention that it would be a lot faster if you went looking with someone on a dragon.”

“Uhh… I dunno how you got those chickens to lie down and play dead, but I should probably mention reindeer aren’t exactly _used_ to dragons,” he pointed out. “I am willing to put money on them turning tail and running at the first sight of flying reptiles.”

“Maybe, but I wish them luck trying to outrun them,” she argued.

“You’d be surprised."

Hiccup sighed loudly, pinching the bridge of his nose in a surprisingly good impression of Bunny. But they weren’t given a chance to continue the argument before two large shadows came up from behind them, and Jack felt the familiar trap of North’s hand on his shoulder.

“Jack! Here you are! You should not run off like this!”

“Ah, I told ye that if he was with Hiccup, we’d find him around here!” Gobber said, and if he was trying to hide a sense of relief he was doing a lousy job of it. “But your father’s right, boy. You shouldn’t go runnin’ off around here. Never know what dragon or viking could carry you off.”

Jack smiled and pushed North’s hand away. “We’re not related.”

“Oh, aye, I keep forgetting,” Gobber said, but he didn’t do a particularly good job of hiding the way he watched North’s reaction either, and Jack rolled his eyes. Of all things to be tested on…

“But speaking of running off,” Astrid said pointedly, “we were just telling Jack why he can’t go looking for the rain-doors on his own.”

“Reindeer,” Jack corrected absently, “which are very jumpy and would probably not respond well to dragons. Right, North?”

“Nonsense!” North shouted, and he grinned at Jack’s incredulous look. “Reindeer will be fine. You and young Hiccup should go together, to search!”

“What?”

“Yes! You know the reindeer, and Hiccup knows the area! You will search much better together.”

“Uhh, actually, _no_ , North,” he said, pointedly slow and firm. “No, I would almost definitely be better off on my own. Where I could search _in my own way_?”

But North did what North always did, and chose not to notice what didn’t match his opinion. “It is decided then! Jack shall go with the children to look for reindeer. I will stay here and earn our keep.”

“ _Keep_?” he repeated incredulously. “As in, repayment for a debt for staying more than a few hours?”

Gobber shrugged vaguely. “Sounds like a plan to me. You said you’re a craftsman – how are you in a smithy?”

“Hah! I am master of all crafts! I—”

Jack slammed his elbow into North’s gut, not even feeling the slightest bit guilty at the pained gasp it earned. He just snatched North’s lapel and started yanking him back toward the nearest corner.

“What? What is this, with the elbow?” North asked when they were just around the corner. “You should relax, Jack. You seem stressed.”

“Stressed?” he repeated quietly. “North, I don’t have my staff, you don’t have your reindeer or your sleigh, we are _in another world_. We need to find everything and get home. We don’t have time for this!”

“Of course we will find way home!” he said, loudly enough that the watching villagers could hear without even trying. Jack resisted the urge to strangle North even as he continued, “And we will find everything, have no fear. But will need time to search. It is only polite to earn keep while –”

“North,” he said firmly. “North, think this through. These people have dragons, but they don’t use magic. They aren’t myths or legends. They are real people who would not understand if they found flying reindeer! And I need my staff. It is wood that is probably floating in the middle of the ocean. I am not going to find it from the back of a flying reptile!”

“Nonsense! Will be much faster this way! And besides,” he said, clapping Jack on the shoulders with both hands. “It is good for you to make friends, yes?”

“What? You're the one always telling me not to get attached to mortals!” he hissed. “These are mortals!”

“Eghh, is different this time. Stop worrying, Jack-boy. We have come here for a reason, and until we know reason, it is best to play safe.”

Jack gave him a blunt look, and North snorted before whacking him on the shoulders again. “Well. Safe enough. You go with kids. Have _fun_ , Jack.”

“F- I’m sorry, did you just tell _me_ to –” He spluttered, but that was as far as he could get before North swept him around and forcefully walked him back to Hiccup and the others.

“So we are decided once again!” North announced happily.

Jack realised he wasn’t going to win this one, and gave up.

  

* * *

 

Despite the mess North had put him in, even Hiccup and Astrid eventually agreed Jack had a point about the reindeer being scared by dragons, and decided to ‘minimise the risk’. Astrid went to tell ‘the others’ (Jack assumed they were the other kids Hiccup had been eating dinner with last night) that training was off for the day, while Hiccup led the way back to his house.

“I just need to get some supplies. Wait here for a second,” he said, and then paused to look at him for a moment before smirking at Toothless. “Don’t let him out of your sight, bud.”

“Wha- hey!” Jack cried, grinning despite himself. He was quickly deciding he liked Hiccup. “I’m not five!”

“Yeah… I wouldn’t trust him,” Hiccup confided to Toothless, who snickered and leaned down on his front legs, ready to pounce when necessary.

Jack scowled and flicked back his cloak sleeves in playful threat. “You think you can take me, you scaly cat?”

And that was it. Toothless tackled him, making Jack yelp as he was knocked off his feet, and Hiccup nodded to himself. “Who knew it was so easy to keep children busy?”

“I heard that!” Jack yelled, as Toothless pushed him into the snow.

Unsurprisingly, the fight was incredibly one-sided. Without his staff, Jack’s powers were basically limited to frost and slush, and even the elves could take him in a physical fight, while Toothless was much bigger, stronger, and smarter than all the elves put together. By the time Hiccup came back out, Jack was face-down in the snow with a dragon happily sitting on his back.

“Are you okay?”

“Ughh… I think I left my dignity back in Antarctica,” he mumbled, and Hiccup laughed, then shooed Toothless off to help Jack to his feet.

“You did say dignity’s overrated. But that’s what you get for calling Toothless…” He trailed off, and Jack glanced up from brushing the snow off his front. It took him a couple of seconds to realise Hiccup was gaping at him, and then a few more to figure out why.

Aside from when he’d been playing with Toothless last night, Jack had made sure to keep his hood up, hiding his hair from view and keeping his eyes shadowed, so no one could tell they weren’t natural colours. Once again, the hood had fallen off during the game, but it wasn’t dark enough to hide his looks.

“Jokul Frosti…”

He raised an eyebrow at Hiccup’s awed whisper, reaching to pull his hood back up. “What?”

Hiccup flinched, then blushed, falling back a step. “Nothing, just… just noticed your hair kinda sticks straight up.”

“Sure,” he drawled, flicking off the last of the snow and pulling his cloak shut in front of him. “ _That’s_ why you were staring.”

He winced, but was man enough to admit he’d been caught. “Well, between that and how you walk around barefoot, it is kinda… ice gianty.”

“Ice-gianty?” he repeated. “Is that a verb or an adjective?”

“Shut up,” he said, and Jack laughed, reaching out to gently push him away. Thankfully, it was left aside with Astrid’s return, the girl swooping down astride Stormfly to look at them expectantly.

“Okay, all done with the others. Are we ready to go here?”

“Uh, yeah.” Hiccup hurried to attach his satchel to Toothless’ saddle, then climbed up himself. Jack made a quick face, but jumped up behind Hiccup without complaint, settling down cross-legged and quickly arranging his cloak to cover himself.

Hiccup twisted around to frown at the position. “Uh, I know it was a smooth flight yesterday, but that might not be the safest way to sit. And you might want to hang on.”

“To what? You?” he shot back, and then grimaced awkwardly before pushing Hiccup’s vest aside to grip his belt. Bunny often complained he was cold to the touch – he didn’t really want to draw more comparisons to Jokul Frosti than he apparently already had.

“Uhh… probably not gonna cut it,” Hiccup warned, but Jack just gave him a look.

“How about you focus on the flying, and I’ll focus on the staying on, okay?”

That seemed to be good enough, because Hiccup just rolled his eyes and turned forward again. “If you fall off, I can’t promise Toothless will catch you. You two really seem to be getting off on the wrong foot,” he teased, then nodded to Astrid and patted Toothless’s side. “Okay, let’s go.”

And then, suddenly, they were flying. Jack gasped as they launched – he’d been too distracted and confused yesterday, not to mention tightly wedged between North and Hiccup, to realise just how different this was to any other kind of flying he’d done. The wind blew him around, light and gentle for all its seemingly chaotic movement. The sleigh was smooth and straight, blasting through the air as cleanly as it would on skis. And riding Sandy’s sand wasn’t like flying at all. This was… Toothless was warm and strong beneath him, and the saddle rolled with each flap of his wings. But for all that, the wind crashing against his face was familiar, the speed exhilarating, and the ground rushing away below filled him with an excitement he hadn’t felt in centuries. He couldn’t help the whoop that escaped him, and he twisted around to see everything.

Hiccup chuckled. “See? Flying’s not so bad, right?”

“I never said I didn’t like flying,” he pointed out, suddenly distracted by the mechanism running down Toothless’s side. He’d noticed Hiccup’s artificial leg, and that Toothless had a matching false tailfin, but he hadn’t realised that would make it hard to fly. Hiccup had somehow connected his foot into a device that let him control the fin, constantly moving it in small increments to balance the other one. It fascinated the curious child in Jack and impressed the Guardian, while the rest of him felt a rush of amazed fondness, to see how naturally boy and dragon worked together. You didn’t normally see something like that in humankind. “You guys are incredible.”

They only flew in silence for a few minutes before Astrid dropped down to fly alongside. “So what exactly are we looking for, here? What are reindeer?”

Hiccup looked back at Jack, who winced. “Uhh… do you guys know horses?”

Astrid frowned. “I’ve _heard_ of them…”

“Big, four legs, lots of muscle, fur, face kind of like a Changewing but with flat teeth and smaller eyes,” Hiccup supplied, then raised his eyebrows at Jack. “Like that?”

Whatever Changewings were… He went with the horse analogy to be safe. “A little shorter, shaggier fur, and antlers – uh, horns,” he corrected, raising one hand from Hiccup’s belt to mime a many-pronged horn on his head. “But otherwise, kinda. They’re not dragons, that’s for sure!”

Hiccup shrugged, and the boys looked up at Astrid, only to find her distracted. She was frowning at Jack with wide eyes, like there was something strange about him. He grabbed at his collar, but there was nothing he could really do. There was no way he could keep his hood up in this wind.

Hiccup saved him with a pointed cough. “Anything else we should be looking for? You guys said you had a sleigh?”

“Um, yeah,” he said, and shifted his hand to gesture broadly. “Really big, red, glossy, was attached to the reindeer, but I think they know how to get out of it if they have to. Besides, I think it got damaged when we hi- crashed.”

“Well, we’re nearing where Toothless and I found you yesterday. Did you notice whether the reindeer headed toward Berk or away from it?”

He winced again. He’d been unconscious and probably scaring North stupid. “No. We were kind of preoccupied at the time.”

“Okay,” Astrid said, switching her gaze back to Hiccup. “Where do we start?”

“The iceflow is pretty thick, but it was soft in the afternoon sun. With any luck, it refroze overnight and we might be able to find some tracks in the ice. Let’s go back to where we found Jack and North and check it out.”

Honestly, Jack wasn’t sure what he expected them to find. The reindeer could _fly_. He wasn’t sure if they always flew, or just when North made them do it, but if they could, then, well… why would they stay on the ice? They could be anywhere.

And so could his staff. They were moving closer to it, but it was still just a sparkle against his mind. Nothing strong and secure like he needed it to be.

But soon enough they were coming down to land in the same place Jack had woken up the day before. The minute Toothless touched down, Jack leapt off, pacing his way to where he’d been lying, and then closed his eyes to let his other senses take the fore.

The ice was thick underfoot. Surprising, really – sea water didn’t freeze easily. But it was thick here, almost unnaturally so. But there was damage to the smooth surface. The sleigh had hit the edge hard, the reindeer stumbling and straining to keep it out of the water. It had bounced once, twice… three times, the skis leaving deep trenches in the ice now covered by fresh snow. Then the deer had regained control and taken off again, but the sleigh had dragged behind them, shaving the ice and heading…

“That way,” he murmured, looking to the west.

He walked toward it, using his feet to sweep the snow aside to reveal the tracks. Toothless and Stormfly wandered over so the humans could see, but Jack wasn’t paying much attention, instead comparing the angle to where he could feel his staff.

It wasn’t the same direction, but it was close.

“They went that way,” he said, louder, and turned to clamber back up onto Toothless. “Toward the sunset.”

“The ice won’t stretch that far,” Astrid pointed out. “Was this flow bigger yesterday?”

“Not that much bigger,” Hiccup said slowly. “Are you sure about this, Jack?”

“Yep. That way,” he said again. “Trust me.”

The other two exchanged worried frowns, but the dragons took off regardless, and soon they were flying over more water than ice. Jack kept his eyes on the horizon, knowing the humans would be looking below, but he was startled back to attention when Hiccup made a noise of triumph.

“See that island? I’d bet they’re there,” he said, and looked up to where Astrid was flying above. “Can you scout ahead?”

“On it,” she said, and flew higher, then faster, blasting through the air and leaving the boys behind.

Jack whistled through his teeth. “You wouldn’t think a creature that bulky could fly like that.”

“Yeah. Toothless is naturally faster, but Astrid puts a lot of effort into training her,” he said, watching her go for a few moments before going back to the ice. “That’s why she was feeding her chicken – the extra, uh… I don’t know. There’s something in the bird meat that gives dragons more energy.”

“Probably the protein,” he muttered, and Hiccup shrugged, obviously not having a clue what that was.

“Whatever it is, it makes Stormfly move faster. But that’s Astrid for you – if she knows anything, it’s training.”

 “Yeah, I get that… she likes to be the best, huh?”

“Hah. You have no idea,” he said, and smiled wryly. “Before we started training dragons, Astrid was pretty much the best kid at everything on Berk. Fighting, fishing, even the lessons we had on raiding theory. Not that we had time to raid, but… you know.”

“I’m sensing that’s not the only ‘but’.”

“But she never really got a chance to prove it,” he continued with a grin. He didn’t look away from the ice, and Jack wondered if he’d ever talked like this before – discussed Astrid and what he thought of her with someone that seemed close to his own age. “We’re too young to go on raids, or real fishing trips, and we weren’t even allowed to defend the village from the dragons, aside from bucket brigade. But we have this annual competition – Thawfest. You’d think that would be where Astrid could show off, right? But really, the competition’s just all show. So while no one can use an axe like Astrid, just throwing it at a barrel in line with the rest of us is…”

“…not how it really works. She crashed hard, huh?”

“It was never her fault! But… yeah. Only now we have dragons, and the adults are always watching us, because we were the first,” he said, and gestured at her distant figure. “Astrid and Stormfly are the best, and it shows. But they work hard to prove it.”

“The best?” Jack repeated, and then leaned down to pat Toothless’ side. “Did you hear that? He thinks they’re better than _you_.”

Toothless glanced back, and Hiccup stiffened. “No. No, no, Toothless, we are not –” That was as far as he got before Toothless banked, and he had to jerk his feet to compensate as they shot up into the sky, rolling and twisting, just to prove they could. Jack whooped again, bouncing in his seat as they rocketed through the air. Hiccup didn’t seem nearly as impressed as he yelled for Toothless to “Stop showing off! Toothless! Toothless, we’re supposed to be tracking! This is not – stop – fly straight, you stupid rept-IIIILE!” he ended on a shout as they did a full barrel-roll and wound up shooting across the ice, upside down with Jack—hunched over Hiccup’s back—only inches from the ice.

They came out of it by turning straight up, flying vertically, and Jack let go with one hand to scoop at the mist and clouds. It felt exactly the same as home.

Hiccup glanced back, and Jack could see his reluctant smile for a second before he abruptly bent forward to make them more streamlined, and soon they were flying faster still, getting higher and higher until they abruptly broke into sunlight. They reached a peak, Toothless folded his wings, and for a moment, they hung, weightless, before they dove straight back down, faster than an arrow. Jack held his breath, riding the adrenaline rush as they headed for a crash, only for Toothless to suddenly bank out at the last second. It jerked both boys back in the saddle, and Jack yelled out, pumping his fist against the force even as he used the other to grip tighter to Hiccup’s belt. If he’d had his staff he would have been lost to the wind long ago, but as it was…

“That was incredible!” he yelled as they zoomed over the ice. “You guys are amazing! Ohh, man, that was _stupid_ fun! Oh, man, yeah, go!”

Hiccup chuckled and reached down to pat Toothless, but the moment didn’t last long as they caught up to Astrid, who didn’t look nearly so impressed.

“Tracking hard, I see,” Astrid noted as they drew level.

Hiccup hunched his shoulders in apology. “Have any luck?”

“I think we found the sleigh,” she said, and her judging look faded a little into confusion. “It’s the weirdest looking sleigh I’ve ever seen though. It has these… wings…?”

“Sounds about right,” Jack said cheerfully. “Good to know it didn’t go through the ice. Where’d you see it?”

“I’ll show you. If you three are done playing, of course,” she added, and even Toothless had the good grace to look embarrassed. Despite her disapproval, she still smirked as she turned away, and Jack grinned broadly.

“She is definitely warming up to me,” he said, patting Hiccup’s bicep.

“And that is definitely still a statement,” he replied, and they both snickered before urging Toothless after her.

It took a few moments to get there, but as they swooped down over sleigh wreckage, wedged between the broken ice and a rocky outcrop, Jack frowned and gave up on the pretence of needing to hold on to lean out of the saddle.

“That ice doesn’t look safe,” he mumbled, then looked back at Hiccup over his shoulder. “I’m going to check it out. Don’t land until I say it’s safe, okay?”

“Sure,” he agreed, and nudged Toothless toward the outcrop. “Just let me set you down on – whoa!”

They were still a good five yards above the ice, but Jack jumped anyway. He landed more heavily than he would have with his staff, but he was still light enough, and could strengthen the ice under his feet enough for it to stay strong beneath his weight. He hurried over to the sleigh, noting the broken harness and making sure nothing was actually frozen into the ice. But it seemed fine over all. Just… wedged in and scratched up.

“Huh,” he said, impressed, and then stepped back to look up at Astrid. “The ropes on your saddle – how strong are they?”

She paused, then said, “Strong enough. You think we can pull it out?”

“Yeah. The ice isn’t really safe to walk on, let alone for a dragon to land,” he said slowly, “but if we can get ropes around it, Toothless and Stormfly could probably pull it out and drag it to shore.”

“Are you safe down there?” Hiccup asked, and Jack grinned.

“Safe is such a flexible term. But, yeah, I’m fine. So, the ropes?”

Astrid untied them from her saddle, then tossed one to Hiccup, and they both let one end of their lines down to where Jack could grab them. They spent a few minutes securing the connections, Jack jumping, crawling and climbing all over the ice and sleigh while Hiccup and Astrid had to perform a few mildly acrobatic manoeuvres to keep their dragons in their air and steady. But it wasn’t too long before they were done, and Jack clambered up onto the outcropping to give them a thumbs up.

“Ready down here. Pull away.”

“On three,” Hiccup told Astrid, and she nodded. “One, two, _three_!”

They surged forward, and there was a loud, teeth-wrenching groan before they felt the weight jerk up and out, and soon they were flying again. Jack leapt down onto the sleigh’s back, making sure the ropes held steady as it slid painlessly across the ice and just barely made it into the air.

He smiled in relief. _Finally_ , progress.


	4. The Chapter in which suspicions and complications begin to arise

Despite the wide ice flows stretching across the outer islands, Berk itself had too many cliffs to be completely iced in yet, meaning they couldn’t quite get the sleigh all the way to the docks. They took it around to the beach instead, and ended up having to drag it through a few yards of water and wet sand before they finally got it high enough to be safe.

Both Toothless and Stormfly were beat, and Hiccup rubbed his dragon’s shoulders comfortingly. “Good work, buddy.”

“Yeah, seriously, thank you,” Jack agreed as he got out of the sleigh and walked over to them. He reached up and patted Stormfly’s cheek with a warm smile. “All of you. I don’t know how we’d get home without this thing.”

Astrid watched him with narrowed eyes for a few seconds, judging the look and tone, before folding her arms over her stomach and wondering, “How did it get there, do you think? That far from where you crashed, and I didn’t see any sign of animals around…”

“The reindeer probably broke their harness,” Jack said thoughtfully, his hand dropping from Stormfly as he considered. “Which is kind of a problem. If they’re not on the sleigh, they might not be together anymore. And they could be anywhere.”

They all frowned, but before they could actively comment, a loud voice came from the forest. “See? I told you it was them!”

Hiccup and Astrid looked up, but they couldn’t help notice Jack quickly pull his hood back up as Snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins ambled out of the trees. Snotlout looked slightly more annoyed than usual, and folded his arms before he’d even come to a stop in front of them. “I thought you said you were looking for _deer_?”

“That doesn’t look like a deer to me,” Tuffnut said, then frowned and looked at his sister. “Wait, deer are animals, right? Skinny yaks?”

Ruffnut rolled her eyes, but Fishlegs gave him an imperious frown. “Deer are mainland mammals found in the southern climes, like the Roman and Saxon countries. They’re completely unrelated to yaks.”

“They have fur and horns, and that’s good enough for me,” Ruffnut said, bored.

“Guys! Hello! Focus!” Snotlout snapped. “In case you didn’t notice, this is proof we got ditched today! ‘Don’t want to scare the animals’, yeah right. You just didn’t want us meeting the stranger.”

Jack took half a step back, half-hiding behind Stormfly, and Hiccup sighed loudly. “Okay, I’ll bite. Why wouldn’t we want you to meet Jack?”

“You think you’re so smart, but I figured out what you’re hiding!” he said triumphantly. “What, you think we can’t take it? That we need to be hidden from everything? But you can’t hide anything from me for long! I worked it out! She’s really a girl under that cloak!”

“Uh, w- wait, what?” asked Jack, and Snotlout did a double-take at his voice. Jack leaned forward the better to see him. “You think I’m a _girl_?”

“Whoa,” Tuffnut said, leaning close to Ruffnut. “She’s got a really deep voice.”

“Oh, for the love of…” Hiccup pinched the bridge of his nose. “Snotlout, why would we lie about that? What would be the point?”

“Uh, because of what happened with Heather?” suggested Ruffnut. “Remember, all your brains under siege, and stuff?”

“My brain wasn’t under siege!” Tuffnut cried, and Fishlegs nodded.

“Yeah! We were just being… polite, you know?”

Astrid rolled her eyes and set a hand on her hip, while Hiccup tried to restrain his temper. He took a deep breath before letting it out quickly. “We didn’t ditch you – we honestly left this morning looking for reindeer, but we found his sleigh, instead. We’ll probably go looking for the reindeer again after we tell everyone what we found.”

They all exchanged glances, and Fishlegs hesitantly raised his hand. Hiccup and Astrid stared back at him until he realised he was allowed to talk. “So, um, not to bring up any upsetting topics, or anything, but did you happen to decide… um… you know… what we talked about last night?”

Jack looked at Hiccup, whose frustration wasn't decreasing any, then turned to Astrid. She met his gaze for a fraction of a second before going back to Fishlegs. “I’m still working on it.”

“Working on it?” Snotlout repeated scornfully. “How can you still be working on it? Either he is or he isn’t. It’s not that hard a question.”

“Uh, if this is still about my gender, I’d just like to say I’m not on board with proving it to any of you,” Jack interjected, fighting off a grin. “If you’re not going to take common sense as proof, you are going to have to take my word for it.”

“And if that’s not good enough?” Ruffnut asked playfully, and Astrid groaned.

As the conversation further derailed, Tuffnut not following his sister’s insinuations and the other boys getting flustered, Hiccup decided to ignore them all, instead taking the chance to finally have a good look at the sleigh.

And it sure was one _incredible_ sleigh. Glossy, deep red oak, intricately carved and with powerful wings attached by the most amazing metal he’d ever seen. The skis, too, were crafted from strong, lightweight material, an impossible colour and with a shine that promised to be blinding when the sun hit. He crouched down near the wing, reverently touching the bolts and joints and marvelling at the workmanship. It was so thin, so sharp… he couldn’t even imagine how long someone would have had to have been in a smithy to get even one plate of metal so perfect. And even though it was broken, he could see the interlocking joints that showed the wings could move, and seemed to do so through some kind of lever inside the wood. It was so intricate. He wondered if North had been the one to make it, design it… maybe he could teach him something…

“So, does Hiccup ever look at _you_ like that?” Ruffnut asked, and Hiccup blinked as she cried out in pain, his head coming up with a jerk.

“What? Huh?”

Everyone was looking at him, their expressions ranging from amused to completely nonplussed, and he blushed. “Uh, sorry. Did you want me?”

Ruffnut opened her mouth again, but cut it off when Astrid glared at her, and Jack snickered. Snotlout rolled his eyes. “Hiccup’s a nerd, this is not news. Can someone please explain to me why if the stranger’s not a hot girl, why he and his sled are more important than training?”

“We need to tell Chief Stoick about this,” Astrid said, sounding particularly relieved by the segue, and she pointed at the twins. “You two come with me. The rest of you stay here with Jack and Hiccup.”

“What? Why?” demanded Snotlout. “So Hiccup can get even more excited about wood?”

“Hey,” Hiccup said, while Jack snorted, bending so far forward it was impossible to see anything but his cloak. Hiccup glared at him too, not least because he had the feeling Jack was laughing at something completely different to Snotlout and possibly related to the conversation he’d stopped listening to.

“The sleigh is clearly broken, and Hiccup probably has the best chance to fix it,” Astrid said impatiently. “The more time he has with it, the faster he and Gobber will be able to repair it, meaning the sooner Jack and North can go home. And that, Snotlout, will mean the sooner we can get back to training.”

“Whatever,” he said, and slouched over to sit on a rock, scowling but obedient. “This is still lame.”

“Uh, why are we going back to the village?” asked Tuffnut. “Can’t Fishlegs go with you? I mean, if the stranger does turn out to be a psycho killer, I kinda want to be around to see it.”

“Wait, what?” Jack asked again, his head coming back up with all smiles gone. He quickly looked at Hiccup. “Killer?”

Astrid sighed and shoved at the twins. “ _That’s_ why you two are coming with me. I swear, I need a muzzle for you both!”

“What did _I_ do?”

She clucked for Stormfly to follow and pushed the twins back toward the village, leaving the boys to stare at each other, Jack’s expression quickly shutting down to something cold, angry, and hurt.

“Uhh…” Hiccup hesitated, then quickly stood up, his hand instinctively reaching toward Toothless. “It’s… it’s not that we thought you were a killer, exactly, it, uh…”

Jack’s eyes flicked to Toothless, then over to Snotlout, and then Fishlegs. His eyes widened slightly at the way Fishlegs was watching him with open caution, and fell back a step, shoulders rising and falling like he couldn’t quite breathe properly. “Yeah, I can see that…”

“No, Jack, really,” Hiccup insisted. “It was stupid. We were just –”

“We figured that you were an assassin,” Snotlout explained cheerfully. “Why else would a big warrior guy like North hang out with a toothpick like you, if you weren’t secretly a killing machine?”

Jack took another step back, and his head moved forward so that his hood fell further over his face. Hiccup glared at Snotlout. “Not helping.”

“What? It’s a compliment!”

“He’s right,” Jack said suddenly, but he didn’t look up. “Why would someone like North want me around?”

Hiccup and Fishlegs both looked at him quickly, but when Jack just continued walking backwards until he hit the rocks, they exchanged glances. Fishlegs looked worried, but Hiccup knew he was concerned for completely different reasons than Hiccup himself was.

Still, as Jack sat down and pulled his legs up close to his body, it became perfectly obvious that he didn’t want to talk anymore. So Hiccup just sighed and went back to the sleigh, turning the question over in his head with a guilty conscience. Why would North keep someone like Jack on hand?

 

* * *

 

 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the island, Stoick found himself wondering a very similar question.

When he’d first shown up on the island, Stoick hadn’t thought much of North. Not in a negative way, but in the most literal meaning of the phrase – he hadn’t considered him a threat compared to the small, mysterious, and far more suspicious creature that came with him, and so didn’t pay much attention to him.

It was, he admitted, a suspicion based entirely on his experiences with Hiccup. It was easy for Vikings to disregard anyone that wasn’t big or violent, but Hiccup had proved himself the most powerful youngster they had. And while they’d always known he was dangerous, now that he could command dragons, Stoick was shamefully aware of how grateful all of Berk should be that Hiccup loved the people who had once treated him as a menace.

After Heather and Dagur, Stoick had realised it wasn’t just Hiccup. Being small and slight was a surprisingly effective cover: no one paid attention to the skinny children, no matter how psychotic they acted. Heather had tricked them all as the weak shipwrecked child. And at the chiefs’ meetings, when they discussed their problem children, everyone had laughed off Dagur’s actions. Even when he killed small creatures – normally a warning sign – they had just said it was his way of making up for how small he was. He had to be more violent to justify himself.

So when North had shown up, all big, jolly, loud and rambunctious, Stoick had all but passed him over to instead focus on the child he’d brought with him. Anything so small and unassuming had to be where the danger actually lay.

 But as he’d watched the boy overnight, from the way he crept around to how he had appeared with Hiccup this morning, his caution had slowly faded. The boy was quiet and lingered on the edges of attention, but he watched everything like he expected it to disappear in a moment. That wasn’t the way a killer acted. He’d seen the look before, but not for many years, and he’d always been instructed to look away quickly.

Slaves weren’t supposed to be noticed, after all.

Especially not recently freed ones.

But as Gobber had pointed out to him, between North’s treatment of the boy and the fact that Jack was clearly capable of making his own decisions, it was difficult to see him as a former slave, no matter how many of their mannerisms he seemed to have.

Unfortunately, the other side of the assumption was much easier to see.

A warrior, claiming to be a merchant, who kept a strange young boy as a companion and watched children with assessing eyes. No matter how friendly or harmless he appeared to be, when Stoick thought about that, assumptions were very easy to make. And he refused to lose any of Berk’s children to such a man.

Which was why, the moment he had some free time, he made his way to Gobber’s shop to see how things were getting on.

Somehow, he knew he shouldn’t have been surprised to find drunken smithing.

“You make blades too heavy!” North was insisting, waving an axe in one hand and a stein in the other. “This you must wield with two hands! Is too slow!”

“Argh, you’re going senile, old man,” Gobber argued. “Heavier weapons mean heavier blows!”

“Yes, yes, but still only one! With two light blades, while you swing with axe, I hit five times!”

“But you won’t hit anything hard enough to do anything! We fight dragons! Your light blades wouldn’t scratch their hides!”

“Bah! Is all about _where_ you hit,” he insisted, then threw down the axe to sit on a barrel opposite Gobber’s anvil. “But you, you show no finesse! Is Viking flaw.”

Gobber snorted, but when he noticed Stoick in the doorway he smiled broadly and beckoned him in. “Stoick! Come in here and tell this fool how we handle blades here on Berk.”

“No, no, tell stubborn goat that you have left dragon-killing behind, and quick sword-work will make the difference against men!” North called.

Stoick ducked into the shop and looked around, noting the keg and a strange shield made of thick wood that had been partially-carved with an intricate design. He picked it up, noting the reinforced strength made from the slats hidden on the underside, and raised an eyebrow at North. “This is your work, I assume?”

“That it is. It has been a long time since I made war, and shields were never my speciality, but this I can do,” he said. “Is very different from your own.”

“That it is,” he agreed. It looked weak, vulnerable, and would look even moreso when the carvings were finished, but he could feel this was something that wouldn’t easily break. He found himself thinking of Hiccup, and put the shield aside to meet North’s gaze directly. “I want a word. Walk with me.”

North looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, then smiled and nodded. “Is time for tacks of brass. I could use some air, regardless. This building is too hot for my tastes!” he added at Gobber, who snorted at him again.

“It’s a  forge, you weak-willed old man!”

“Is stuffy!” he shot back, but followed Stoick out of the store without further complaint. Stoick paused long enough to take a sword from the work bench, slipping it through his belt as he exchanged a meaningful look with Gobber, before leading the way up and along the cliff side.

They walked in relative silence until they were out of the village proper, Stoick only responding to those who called out greetings to him, but he could feel North watching him. He didn’t seem at all surprised when Stoick finally turned to him and asked, “Where are you from, North?”

“Slavic country,” he said easily. “To the South East.”

“I notice your boy doesn’t share your… accent.”

“Neither does your own,” he pointed out. “You have a different dialect to your children. But in my case, is not so strange. Jack does not come from my country.”

Stoick narrowed his eyes slightly. It felt like an invitation, which was suspicious, but he took it anyway. “And where does the boy hail from?”

“Hmm…” North considered him for a moment, his smile turning tricky. “You are Viking, you would have heard legend of uh… New World, I think you call it?”

“The New World?” He snorted. “That _is_ a legend. Everyone knows there isn’t really anything past the mainland.”

“So they do say. But some would also say other legends are untrue, that there are no spirits of the snow or sea. And this I know is false,” he said, and Stoick had to give him that. North gestured to him as if in point. “Have you yet seen a spirit? Do you doubt them?”

“I may not have seen a spirit, but I’ve seen their work,” he said. “The God of Thunder himself watches over our village, and gives punishment when needed. A man that doubts him is a fool.”

“So then why should you doubt the New World, just because you have not seen it?”

Stoick inclined his head but said nothing, considering the answer before changing tack. “And so then how did you come to travel together? The New World is a long way from Slavic country.”

 “Is not so great a distance, if you know the way,” he said with a grin. “Perhaps now is not time to beat around bush. What is it you want to ask me, Chief? Really?”

He stopped, then turned to face North directly, meeting his gaze. It was strange to meet someone on his own level – he was so used to having to look down at people, to feeling large and bulky around even the tallest men. But North was only slightly slimmer than he was, holding his weight a different way. Stoick didn’t doubt that he could defeat the man in a fight, but most of his tribe would likely have difficulty.

And yet… yet he wasn’t threatening. Which somehow seemed more of a threat, right now.

So what did he want to ask?

He could ask, outright, if North was a slaver. He suspected he’d even get an honest answer. But he wondered if it mattered.

If Hiccup were asked, Stoick knew he would care – they’d never discussed it, but somehow he knew his son would be fundamentally against the slave trade, and probably want to free any slaves he met. But did he, Stoick, feel the same?

The Hooligans had never taken part in that side of Viking life, mostly because they didn’t have the time for it, just as they’d never had time to properly raid or war with Saxons. They hadn’t even left the archipelago for nearly four hundred years, caught up in inter-tribe rivalries and then the Dragon War. They were the front lines in that, and things like slaves and stealing quite frankly got in the way. If Stoick were honest, he didn’t care for the idea, and would never allow it on his island. But did that mean he would fight it, the way his son would?

Did it matter to him if North was a slaver?

Not really. Not unless he was here for stock.

Or if Hiccup found out.

Oh, Odin preserve, that would be an argument he’d like to avoid.

He looked North in the eye again, his expression leaving no room for games. “Did you intend to come to Berk?”

“I did not,” he said, so quietly and calmly that Stoick knew he wasn’t lying.

“What will you take with you, when you leave?”

A small smile twitched his beard, but he was still honest as he said, “Knowledge only. We did not mean to come here, but both Jack and I have much to learn, and by happy accident, I believe Berk may teach us what we need to know,” he said, before his smile faded and he met Stoick’s gaze with as much seriousness as he was given. “We are not here to cause you trouble, Chief Stoick. We have trouble enough of our own.”

He narrowed his eyes. “As do we. Will your trouble follow you?”

“That is unlikely. Unless you count the trouble I feel we already share,” he added with another quick grin. “Our boys, they are both… different, yes? It is not always easy to speak with them.”

He blinked at the sudden change of subject, then snorted. “No, North. I’m a father, and my problems with Hiccup come from that. You, I suspect, have a very different issue.”

“Yes, I suppose I do,” he agreed, and then shrugged. “But ah, it was worth try.”

Stoick smirked, folding his arms over his chest, but neither spoke as a small group came into view over the ridge above. They both looked up, curious, as Astrid and the twins began clambering down, Tuffnut looking bored while the girls bickered. Which was strange. Normally, the girls were battle partners but otherwise tolerated each other happily enough. As far as Stoick knew, the only thing they had ever argued over was Hiccup, and that had been mostly settled now that Hiccup had established himself as an authority figure and Ruffnut decided that annoyed her.

Wait.

Astrid was supposed to be keeping an eye on Hiccup and Jack.

“Astrid!”

She jumped, relaxed when she saw it was Stoick, and then immediately stiffened again. “It’s alright, sir, Snotlout and Fishlegs are with them,” she called. Ruffnut muttered something and Astrid punched her without looking, then led the way down to Stoick. She glanced at North before reporting, “We found something. Not the reindeer, but the sleigh.”

“Sleigh?” he repeated, while North laughed and clapped his hands.

“Excellent! I was worried more about living creature, but sleigh is definitely a start!” he said cheerfully. “Is it still intact? Is there much damage?”

“I wouldn’t know. Hiccup is…” She stopped, glared at Ruffnut, then started agan, “Hiccup’s looking it over, but Jack didn’t seem too concerned. Not that he really seems concerned about much, if you don’t mind me saying so.”

North chuckled ruefully but didn’t comment, instead turning to Stoick. “I understand you are busy, Chief Stoick, and appreciate you may want to speak with me further, but I would very much like to see sleigh. Damage could delay our departure, after all.”

“Aye,” he said, and then looked to the twins. “You two get Gobber. We’ll go ahead.”

“Aw, man, why are we getting all the lame jobs today?” Tuffnut complained, then flinched when Stoick glared at him, and pointed to his sister. “Totally her. Ow!”

Ruffnut cracked the knuckles she’d just dug into his side and started leading the way down to the village, while Astrid nodded respectfully.

“This way, sir.”

 

 

* * *

 

It didn’t take them long to walk over the hill and climb down the forest path, but the clear skies were quickly clouding, and both Stoick and North watched them warily as the trees thinned overhead.

“Looks like more snow on the way,” Astrid noted when she saw their expressions. “Kind of strange given how clear everything was earlier this week.”

Stoick glanced at North, who narrowed his eyes before pushing forward, faster than before. Stoick and Astrid followed with only a quickly exchanged glance, but said nothing as they came out onto the beach.

The sleigh was ridiculously large, to the point that it actually stopped Stoick in his tracks for a moment, before he huffed and looked around. Fishlegs was crouched beside Toothless, who was peering underneath the sleigh – probably at Hiccup, whose boot was just visible between the ski tracks. Snotlout was napping on a rock, but it took Stoick a moment to notice Jack on the other side of the beach near the cliff wall, bundled up in his cloak and turned toward the ocean. North quickly went over to touch his shoulder, and smiled when Jack’s hood turned toward him, but only tightened his grip for a moment before looking around at the sleigh.

“Ah, good! Wings and skis only slightly damaged!”

There was a loud thud from under the sleigh, followed by Hiccup grunting painfully, his boot kicking at the sand once. Both Toothless and Fishlegs cringed while Stoick rolled his eyes and strode over to the sleigh.

“Hiccup?”

“Oh. Hey, Dad,” he called, and then shuffled his way out from under the sleigh to look up at him. “So I guess Astrid found you, huh?”

“That she did,” he said, and reached down to grab Hiccup’s collar and pull him to his feet. “What were you doing under there?”

It was like a fire lit up in Hiccup’s eyes, and he smiled broadly. “Dad, this sleigh, it’s incredible. The craftsmanship on this thing, it – the metalwork! There are gears and pullies and things I don’t even understand, it’s amazing!”

“Everyone loves the sleigh,” North noted, and then patted Jack’s shoulder before moving forward. “But is not so impressive. What I can make in workshop, now that would impress you.”

“You made this?” Hiccup asked. “How did you get the metal so thin? It should break, shouldn’t it?”

“Well, is easy when you have right tools. And the alloy, it is more complex than simple steel.”

Sensing a blacksmith’s discussion, which Hiccup and Gobber had proved time and again could last hours, Stoick quickly held up his hand to stall it, fixing North with a firm look. “You said it was broken. Can you fix it, without your ‘tools’?”

“Bah, of course! Is practically flight-ready now!” he said, then stopped and laughed, correcting himself. “By which I of course mean flying across ice. Not air. That is for dragons.”

Jack snorted, but only turned his head slightly as if to listen better, and Hiccup glanced at him before patting the sleigh’s side. “The problem is that it looks like it does need some work – the skis are pretty banged up, and you’ll need the forge to fix them. We could either take it apart and you can get what you need back to the shop, or with maybe three or four dragons, we might be able to lift it to the village. What would be easier?”

“I think if we got Hookfang, Barf and Belch, and maybe Meatlug, it would be easier to take the whole thing,” Astrid said thoughtfully. “And that way, if you need to fix something to the sleigh itself, you won’t have to be away from the village.”

“Is that a good thing?” Jack muttered, and Hiccup winced like the question hurt, but didn’t otherwise draw attention to it, instead looking over at Fishlegs.

“Where is Meatlug, anyway? And the other dragons. You didn’t bring them with you when you showed up.”

“Well, Meatlug went off to play with her friends,” Fishlegs said, then grinned and bunched up his fists. “I could call them if you like! And the other dragons too! It would be no trouble at all to –”

“ _No_ , thank you, Fishlegs,” Hiccup said, holding out his arm.

“You can call dragons?” asked North. “How?”

“Ooh! It’s super difficult,” Fishlegs said, and looked at Hiccup again. “I can show him.”

Again, Hiccup looked slightly pained by the question, and a quick look at Astrid showed she was developing a tic in anticipation, but they didn’t seem to have much of a response. After a moment, Hiccup reluctantly flipped his hand. “Sure, Fishlegs. I guess we could use Meatlug’s help.”

“Yes! Now, the key to calling a gronkle is to use your deepest, most primal instincts,” he explained, and North and Jack looked around curiously. Hiccup scratched his eyebrow and Astrid calmly plugged her ears in preparation, but Fishlegs apparently didn’t notice. “It’s about strength, and power, with a core of honest sensitivity, much like the gronkle itself.” He looked ready to continue, but another look at Hiccup quickly changed his mind, and Stoick covered his ears in preparation. It barely did any good as Fishlegs began his roar: a very loud, guttural and frankly painful sounding howl that never failed to make the whole village wince. Snotlout shot awake with a loud squawk, tumbling off his rock, and Jack scrambled up and away, closer to the cliff, as if it would help shield him. But Fishlegs carried on for several seconds before he apparently ran out of air, and had to drop to one knee, panting.

“What is the matter with you?” Snotlout demanded, slamming his fist against the stone. “ _Warn_ a guy before you do that!”

“Sure, okay,” he said, and patted his chest, “I’m about to do it again. _Rra_ -”

“Thank you, Fishlegs! That call will have brought more than enough gronkles!” Hiccup cried, making the larger boy preen even as everyone else let out a breath of relief. Astrid rolled her eyes and cupped both hands to her mouth before letting out her own call: something far shorter, and closer to a wolf howl that ended on a screech. As she did, Meatlug and a few other gronkles buzzed their way over the cliff, quickly followed by a second nadder that landed beside Stormfly. They all landed at once, and Hiccup looked around at North again. “Okay, so, that was two different kinds of dragon calls. Each one is unique and different to do.”

Astrid smiled at his teacher’s tone, but remained silent as she moved over to Stormfly to shift the ropes. With North’s help, she and Hiccup hooked the sleigh up to the dragons while Snotlout growled at Fishlegs, leaving Stoick to turn his attention to the last members of the group. Apparently exempt from the sleigh-carrying, Toothless wandered over to where Jack was apparently still getting over the dragon calls, and sniffed at him questioningly.

Jack, for his part, just petted Toothless once before rising to his feet and moving over to stand by North. Stoick had to wonder whether it was intentional that the movement blocked him from almost everybody’s view.

In typical fashion, they were just finishing up the connections when Gobber limped onto the beach. He had looked annoyed, but the moment he saw the sleigh he whistled and came forward, impressed.

“That’s a beauty, that is! What d’ye call that thing?”

“Call?” North repeated. “Is sleigh!”

“Santa’s sleigh,” Jack supplied. North gave him a quick look, but whatever Jack’s response, Stoick couldn’t see it. “That’s what it’s called: Santa’s sleigh.”

“Does it mean something?” asked Hiccup. He looked oddly encouraging, making Stoick wonder what had happened this morning. “In your language, I mean.”

Jack climbed up into the sleigh, and then bounded up to the top of the seat-like stairs at the back. He crouched there, his cloak hiding most of his body, but his smile still glittered whiter than it had any right to be. “It means wonder. Right, North?”

“Ahh, yes, one could argue this,” he said slowly, then turned to Hiccup. “So are we ready to go?”

“Uh, yeah, think so. Jack, can you stay in the sleigh like last time? Make sure nothing snaps?” he asked, and Gobber twitched.

“Wait. Are you all tellin’ me I came all the way out here just to see you lift that thing back to the village?”

“Yup, that’s about the size of it!” Astrid said cheerfully, jumping up onto Stormfly’s back.

“Then what in the name of Odin’s knickers did you call me out here for?” he demanded. “I had to deal with those damn twins because of this!”

Stoick smirked and clapped his old friend on the back. “You need the exercise. Come on everyone; let’s get back to the village before that snow starts. The last thing we need is to be out here with a storm on the way.”

“Storm?” Jack repeated, and then looked up at the sky. His jaw clenched when he noticed the clouds, and North raised an eyebrow at him.

“It looks like snow to me, Jack. What say you?”

“No,” he said, sounding oddly determined. “No, that’ll clear up soon.”

North’s eyes narrowed. “Are you certain of this?”

“Yes, North,” he said coldly, and the old man held up his hands in silent surrender.

Stoick glanced at Hiccup, confused by the odd exchange, and his son shrugged as he climbed up onto Toothless. He checked to make sure Astrid and Fishlegs were okay with their dragons, Jack wouldn’t fall out despite his odd crouch, and that Stoick was alright with walking back, before tapping Toothless’ shoulder blade in his silent signal to take off.

The others watched them go, Snotlout muttering about being left behind, but Stoick cast a sideways look at North. The old man was watching the sleigh, open concern on his face, but somehow Stoick knew he was more worried about its cargo than the broken transport.

“We should get back,” he said finally. “No matter what Jack says, I still worry about snow.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Gobber said dryly, before gesturing to Stoick. “Whenever you’re ready.”

“Let’s go,” he ordered, and led the way back up the beach.

 

 

* * *

 

Hidden high in the clouds, the white one watched in interest, following the patterns and magic as it lingered, feeling the wind writhe in discomfort, longing to reach and pull and carry even as it wondered why.

Nature was becoming confused. He wondered what would happen if the situation were to become more complex.

He wondered what delicious tastes he could find if he were to add other ingredients.

Now there was an idea…

 

* * *

 

 

When he’d been young, Dagur could remember having daydreams. Silly things, they’d seemed back then. Impossibilities. Dreams of taking his father’s axe… and then using it. Dreams of leading the armada across the archipelago. Visiting each tribe in turn. Taking what he wanted. Leaving the rest… in various states.

He’d had plans for each of the heirs he’d once been forced to spend time with. How he’d break them. Punish them for all those stupid little things that had driven him crazy. Oh, how those dreams had sustained him over the years…

Back then, the only one he hadn’t really had plans for was Hiccup. He hadn’t really seemed worth it. He’d intended to keep him around, of course. Maybe as a jester. Or something to practice his aim on.

But now… now that Dagur had realised so many of his dreams, Hiccup was…

Hiccup was at the centre of so many of Dagur’s dreams, now.

He was going to enjoy breaking Hiccup. Bringing Hiccup to his knees. Oh, yes. Yes, that was… that was the dream, now. The one, clear dream he knew he had to have.

First, he was going to take the Night fury. He was going to ride it. Force Hiccup to watch as he brought the beast down. And then, when it was broken and pliant… he’d take Hiccup’s hand, put a dagger in it, and force him to kill it. He’d wipe the blood all over that defiant little liar.

And then… then he would –

“Sir!”

“ _What_?” Dagur screeched, lifting his fists only to slam them against the railing. That had been a good one! “What is it? I’m busy! What do you want?”

The fool hesitated just long enough for Dagur to officially lose patience. He yanked a knife from his belt and launched it at the man’s head. The quick reflexes of the Berserker tribe were all that saved him from a scalping.

“Sir, the weather’s acting up, sir,” he babbled. “Storms rising in almost all directions but south.”

“The weather? You’re bothering me about weather?” he demanded, and the man rushed to explain.

“These aren’t normal storms, sir; they’re big ones. Impenetrable.”

Dagur sneered. Nothing stood in the way of Dagur the Deranged. Especially not something as piddly as—

He stopped, something ticking against the back of his head, and so he tilted it the better to knock it loose. South. There was only one inhabited island in the archipelago to the south. One very important island.

“What an unfortunate dilemma,” he purred, strolling forward and slinging a companionable arm around the messenger’s shoulders. “We shall have to change course then. I wouldn’t want any of my armada getting lost in a storm, after all.”

“N-no, sir,” the man said, and Dagur patted his arm.

“Of course not. So. Best we turn south. To Berk.”

“T- D-Dagur, we o- th- the dragons, s-s-sir –”

“I said we sail to Berk!” he yelled, and shoved the man hard enough to send him skittering across the deck. He then spun around, snarling at every man fool enough not to already be jumping into action. “You all heard me! Turn this fleet around! I want to see Berk’s shores! _Now_!”

**Author's Note:**

> The 48 is a collection of unfinished stories I have sitting on my hard drive. I have decided to share them in case anyone is interested or wishes to adopt them. This one gets edited and added to pretty much any time I rewatch Riders or RotG. So, you know, technically it's still in progress.
> 
> And everyone who writes for either of these two fandoms totally has at least a few lines of a crossover written somewhere.


End file.
